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HERALD BULLI-TIN 

No. I. 







CRITICISMS 




ON THE 



i^ricultural College 





AT 

BERKELEY. 

BY 
S. M. WOODBRIDOI^:, PH. D., 

Los A-ogeles, Cal. 







W^^ 



^ 



A 



PR EFFACE. ^ rA 



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The agricultural editor of The Herald, 
in the discharge of duty, after consult- 
ing with comipetent and judicious ad- 
visers, felt called upon to complain, of the 
methods of the Agricultural colleg-e and 
its director. We presented the case fair- 
ly and the adivocates of the college had 
the full benefits of our columns. 

Several considerations now leadl us 
through this Bulletin to ask for a further 
and larger hearing of what has been said 
—substantially on both sides of the ques- 
tion: 

First— No notice was taken at the col- 
lege of our strictures, although a letter 
was sent to the president of the univer- 
sity calling his attention to them. This 
Bulletin will, we trust, enable the pub- 
lic to decide whether our chargesi were 
too trifling to merit notice or were 
too well grounded to be rebutted. 

Second — We gave Prof. A. J. Cook of 
Claremont, who volunteered as cham- 
pion of the college and its director, an 
opportunity to answer our averments, 
or on his honor to pass on their truth or 
falsity. His virtual retirement from the 
case lead® us to appeal to the public to 
decide whether the college is doing the 
work for which ft was created) and is 
sustained at an annual cost of $40,000. 
Prof. Cook had it 'in his power to stop all 
criticism by simply showing the falsitv 
of our averments. 

Indeed, it was Prof. Cook who first told 
the writer of the absurd statement con- 
cerning the woolly aphis contained in 
Prof. Hilgard's last report. 

Thlrd^The character of the defense of 
the college appearing in the Berkeleyan 
and elsewhere has made it our duty to 
present in tMs form what we have writ- 
ten, that it may be decidedwhether per- 
sonal considlerations or great interests, 
vital to the tillers of the state, are at 
issue. 

Almost any one of the indictments 
contained in the following pages should 
be enough to retire Prof. Hilgard. His 
mission, since his advent in the state 
about twenty years ago, has been a con- 
spicuous failure. He has had charge of 
the agricultural college for more than 
twenty years, and during that time he 
has not graduated one and one-half stu- 
dents per annum. Indeed, Prof. Hilgard 
said before the farmers' institute, 

held in August and September last,' 
"There is very little use for agricultural 



experts in this country, as the soil is 
fresh and requires but little art in cul- 
tivation," so narrow is his view of the 
situation. 

We hiave looked in vain for graduates 
of Prof. Hilgard in our wineries, in our 
sugar factories, in our great meat pack- 
ing houses, in our canneries and fruit- 
preserving establishments, in our fertil- 
izer manufactories, and among our hor- 
ticultural commissioners. If one or two, 
by chance, may appear in some of these 
concerns, their records have been so in- 
conspicuous that they are like the needle 
n the haystack — hard to find. 

We h^ve looked in vain for a single 
crop that Prof. Hilgard has shown the 
ranchers how to improve, either in 
quantity or quality, although we have 
found many who have asked his advice, 
some of whom say that they have re- 
ceived no benefit from following it, and 
others that they were positively dam- 
aged by following it. 

Prof. Hilgard has done positively noth- 
ing of any benefit in showing the ranch- 
ers how the waste products of the ranch 
could be utilized and turned into by- 
products. 

Prof. Hilgard's entomological depart- 
ment is a disgrace alike to himself, the 
university and the state. His last report 
state* that there is no male to the blaok 
.scale, for instance. When it comes 
to making a simple statement of 
-Cacts, Prof. Hilgard seemS' to be 
incapable of so doing, which is 
the first requisite of a man making 
any claims to be scientific. For example, 
in the July (1S95) number of the Califor- 
nia Cultivator, he said: "All my reconi- 
mendations so made (meaning on soil 
analysis) have been followed by culture 
tests, but usuallj- on a larger scale than 
L)r. Woodbridge's, but the results have 
not been paraded in the papers." In 
August. 1895, the writer called on the 
professor to state whereabouts these 
tests had been made, but the professor 
failed to answer. We know that he had 
not carried on any such tests on the 
Chapman ranch, on the Crank ranch, on 
the Brigdon ranch and on many other 
ranches where he had given advice. 

There are many other like cases with- 
in the following pages, which show Prof 
Hilgard to be utterly devoid of the first 
requisite of a man of science. He should 
be retired in the interests of the ranch- 
ers, the students and the honor of the 
state. 



^ir^ 



REPORT OF AGRICl'LTI'RAL. EX- 
PERIMENT STATIONS. 

We are in receipt of the Report of 
Work of the Agricultural Experiment 
Stations of the University of California 
for the years 1894-95. The report claims 
to embrace the work of the station 
laboratory only up to July, 1895, and the 
culture reports of the several sub-sta- 
tions up to the close of the season of '95, 
whatever that may mean. The report 
is very voluminous, containing nearly 
500 pages. And while there are some 
pages of value in it there are many mat- 
ters in it that are treated in the most 
superficial and unscientific manner, and 
altogether unworthy to emanate from 
so high a source as the University of 
California. 

To illustrate, the report says: "The 
confusion of nomenclature which we 
found existing at Santa Monica, when 
the station was transferred to us, is be- 
ing grad^ually rectified, especially as re- 
gards the eucalyptus, by comparison 
with standard collections, but takes time 
and the service of experts. In this and 
all other w-ork the limited financial re- 
sources interpose serious obstacles, 
which have sometimes been taken ad- 
vantage of for unjust criticism." Ex- 
cuses, with some people are like motions 
to adjourn — always in order. The For- 
estry Station at Santa Monica has been 
under the charge of the director mora 
than twenty-four months. How many 
months does he want and how^ mucii 
money does he require to correctly spi'll 
the names on the signs and to rightly 
place them on proper eucalyptus trees 
at the Santa Monica station? 



OUR AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 

If there ever was any doubt about the 
inability and' incompetency of Prof. E. 
W. Hilgard to occupy the high position 
of director of our agricultural experi- 
ment station and chief officer of our 
agricultural college, the professor him- 
.self has furnished the proof, in the pro- 
duction of his voluminous report just 
published, entitled, "Report of the Work 
of the Agricultural Experiment Station 
for 1894-95." 

In the first place, there is little or 
nothing new in the work; scarcely any- 
thing that is not more than one year old, 
and that has not been published previ- 
ously. 

He says in his introduction or letter of 
transmittal, that the college has been 
attended by the usual number of stu- 
dents, but he fails to state that the usual 
number grad'uated annually is less than 
one and one-half students, and that he 
has been in charge of the college some 
twenty years and that he has made his 
course of instruction so unpopular and 
so uninstructive that our youth, in this 
greatest of all agricultural states, are 
not attracted to him, his methods of 
thoughts or his college There is the 



usual complaint about lack of funds, 
but little is said about the $40,000 per 
annum that it costs to graduate less 
than one and one-half students. 

Here is a list of the professors, in- 
ctructors and oHlcers that it takes to 
.graduate them, together with their sal- 
aries: 

Prof. Hilgard $ 4,000 

Associate Prof. Wiekson 2,400 

Associate Prof. Loughridge 2,000 

Associate Prof. AVoodworth 1,800 

Instructor Jaffa i 7,t6 

Instructor Colby .'. i,'500 

Assistant Hayne l',W) 

Inspector of Stations Shinn 1,'SOO 

Garderner Kellner 900 

Foreman Tyson 900 

Foreman Hansen 900 

Foreman Forrer 900 

Foreman Mills 900 

Foreman Strachan 600 

Foreman Borland 720 

Clerk Stubenrach 720 

Cellarman Bioletii 1,000 

Total $24,290 

The number of men employed by the 
department are seventeen. 

The expenses for salaries are $24,289.80 

Dther expenses 16,050.10 

Total expense of agr. departm't. .$40,339.90 
The professor makes a very favorable 
showing in the raising of some four 
acres of beets, which were sold to the 
Chino Valley Beet Sugar company for 
J185.26 net, which seems to be the only 
profitable crop that was raised on. the 
thirty acres of land at the station near 
Pomona. But there is not one word said 
as to how to grow beets, nor has he made 
any attempt to show^ the farmers a: 
Chino and Anaheim, who are raising 
some 9000 acres of that valuable crop, 
how they can raise heavier tonnage or 
better beets, i. e., beets with a larg=^r 
percentage of sugar, or beets with a 
greater "purity." 

When the foreman of one of the sta- 
tions was asked a few days ago if he 
knew of a single crop that Prof." Hilgard 
had shown the ranchers how to grow 
with a greater yield or a better quality, 
he w-as as mum as an oyster. 

When I'rof. Hilgard was asked at the 
last farmers' institute held' at Riverside 
"How can we grow sweeter oranges wMth 
thinner skins " his learning and acumen 
enabled him to say to the audience, 
"Don't ask conundrums." 

When it comes to a matter of fertil- 
izers, the professor is as weak as he 's 
confusing, and a perusal of that part 
of the report will leave the mind of the 
seeker after information in a perfect 
muddle. There are but ten fertilizers 
reported upon, but there is no indication 
as to where they can be duplicated. 

We quote one report: "Bird guano, 
from George Frost, Riverside. A pre- 
liminary examination shows this to be 
of good, perhaps high, quality, contain- 
ing an abundance of easily soluble phos- 
phoric acid, and considerable ammo- 
nia." 



This preliminary report is about as 
valuable as would be a report on a sam- 
ple of water, to which the professor 
would reply, "Yes, sir; the sample ot 
water is wet, and I think if it were ap- 
plied to a redhot coal it would cool it.'" 

While treating of this part of the re- 
port it might be of interest to many to 
know that there are people in the state 
who have followed Prof. Hilgard's ad- 
Vice, given on an analysis of their soils, 
that say that the plant food they ap- 
plied did them no good; there are others 
who say that by following his advice 
they ruined their crops. 

When it comes to that part of the re- 
port which treats of entomology, it is 
60 weak, inconsistent and useless that, 
as citizens of California, we drop our 
heads in very shame. 

Reference is made to but two sam- 
ples of it here: 

CORN WORM. 

"The Sacramento Packing and Dryinj^ 
company writes, under date of January 
12, 1894: 'The sugar corn consumed in 
this state is brought out from the east, 
to a large extent, while, if it were not 
for this pest, corn-packing would be 
quite successful and extensive within 
our borders. We are assured by people 
having experience that it is well nigh 
impossible to get sugar corn not having 
a worm in the ear.' This is the same 
condition of affairs that is found in the 
southern states, where the insect is more 
commonly knoM'n as the boll worm, on 
account of its attack on the bolls of cot- 
ton. In the northern states the worm 
also exists, but the shorter season pre- 
vents the many broods that are fourd 
in the south; the corn also matures 
faster, so that the worm never becomes 
as abundant nor injurious. It may be 
that in California the corn, for packin.g 
purposes, will have to be grown mostly 
in the foothill regions, where the cli- 
mate corresponds with that of the north- 
ern states For market garden pu'.-- 
poses the solution is growing of the 
most rapidly developing dwarf vari- 
eties. 

"It may be that dusting the field with 
Paris green repeatedly, just before and 
at about the time the silk appears 
(which corresponds with the pe'riod of 
the entrance of the worm), may produce 
results. We have suggested the ex- 
periment to a number of correspond- 
ents, but have not heard of the results 
obtained." 

Here is a question of a practical na- 
ture put some two and one-half years 
ago. A suggestion of a possible remedy 
is given, but no account of its having 
been tried. If the professors of our 
agricultural college understood their 
duties and were capable men, they 
would have tried the suggested remedy 
and reported on its efficiency. That is 
what they are there for, that is what 
they are paid for. 



On page 258 we find the following par- 
agraph. The scale referred to is the 
black scale (lecanium): 

"This leads us to a consideration of 
the history of the scale when left lo 
Itself. Each well-developed insect lays 
a large number of eggs It has been 
estimated that as high as a thousand 
are sometimes laid. Let us suppose, 
however, that five hundred are pro- 
duced. As there are no males, each one 
of these that comes to maturity lays 
five hundred more. It will be evident 
at once that this rate of increase cannot 
go on long." 

We call attention to the statement 
that there are no males to the black 
scale. 

'Tis twenty years that Rip Van Win- 
kle slept; 'tis about twenty years since 
our agricultural college was born. It 
seems to have dropped to sleep at its 
birth and to have remained in that 
soporific condition ever since. The state 
board of horticulture published in its 
annual report of 1893 an account of the 
finding and a description of the male, 
which we reproduce. The description 
was reproduced' in the California Culti- 
vator, October, 1894; by United States 
department of agriculture and in many 
publications. Except upon the Rip Van 
Winkle theory how can we account f.ir 
our state entomologist's ignorance? 

That something is wrong with our ag- 
ricultural college is very generally ad- 
mitted. What is the wrong and at 
whose door shall it be laid? 

It has had and spent large sums C'f 
money. Its management has had fuil 
sway, unhampered and untrammeled. 
It has had the most magnificent stretcli 
of country, with varying climates, and 
the richest soils and the greatest va- 
rieties of products of the soil to work 
upon. Its subject matter to work upon 
has been ideal — perfect. And yet with 
this vast amount of money and the cry- 
ing need for trained agriculturists, 
the college has failed to produce them; 
as it has failed to show the farmer how 
to grow larger and better crops. The 
whole trouble lies in the personnel of our 
director and many of his incompetent 
assistants. 



A SPECIMEN IN ENTOMOLOGY. 

From the latest report of the Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station: The woolly 
aphis is a much more difficult insect to 
eradicate than those living above 
ground, but it is a much easier insect 
to control than such as the phylloxera. 
The treatment above ground is the same 
as for other aphids. Those on the roots 
are beyond the reach of any practical 
remedy, but fortunately they do but lit- 
tle injury. The danger from this insect 
lies almost wholly in their attack upon 
the crown of the root. At this point the 
irritation by the insect causes 
the tree to attewipt to put out 
suckers. These, generally, are not 



able to develop into a normal sucker, 
but remain as knots on the tree. The 
continuation of this process finally pro- 
duces a very large knot of abnoi-mal tis- 
sue around the base of the tree. As lon^ 
as this tissue remains alive there is no 
danger to the tree, but it generally die.s, 
and then may be the avenue for the dry- 
ing up of the trunk,and causing tho 
death of the tree. The most serious com- 
plication is the rotting of this tissue 
and the admission of toadstool fungi, 
which will ultimately result in the death 
of the tree. 

The remedy is simple, and consists in 
defending this part of the tree by wood 
ashes or other substances distasteful to 
the aphis. Page 248. 

We analyze the above account, and 
place its contradictions in the deadly 
parallel column: 

"Those on the rootpj The remed'y is pim- 
are beyond' the reach )le and consists of de- 
of any practical rem-l fending this part of 
edy, but fortunately! the tree with wood 
they d'o but little in-! ashes or other sub- 
jury." [stances distasteful to 
i the aphids. 
j As long as this tis- 
I sue remains alive 
I there is no danger to 
I the tree, but it gener- 
j ally dies, and may 
I then be the avenue 
1 for the drying up of 
I the trimk and' caus- 
!'ng the death of the 
Itree. 
When this learned professor says: 
"The danger from this insect lies al- 
most wholly in their attacks upon the 
crowns of the roots," he shows as much 
ignorance as he did. when he said thera 
were no males to the lecaniums, or blai-K 
scale, for where the woolly aphis works 
at all it works on all the fibrous roots. 

And yet Prof. Hilgard, in. his letter of 
transmittal has this to say of this "pro- 
fessional entomologist:" 

"Professor Woodworth, in addition to 
lecture and laboratory work with three 
classes, has steadily carried' on exper- 
imental work on the grounds, and' is con- 
stantly in receipt of specimens of in- 
sects, diseased plants, insecticides, etc., 
which, together with an extensive cor- 
respondence on the same and cognate 
subjects, occupies his time very fully. 
His contributions to the present report, 
and that of one of his students. Mis.^ 
Tyrrell, illustrate fairly the kind' and 
method of work pursued by him. He has 
also made several professional and 
other excursions to the southern and 
other parts of the state, for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining by personal study 
the actual and probable success of sev- 
eral of the imported' scale-destroyers, 
whose practical value is still in doubt." 
Last week we suggested that these 
gentry had merely been to sleep: but it 
would only be a fair conclusion to draw- 
that they had' just returned from a call 
on the $1000 cellar man and. special stu- 
dent before attempting to pen such mat- 
ter. 



A WONDERFUL DISCOVERY. 

It will be a great relief to thousands 
of orchardists to learn at last from '.he 
report of the work of the agricultural 
expei-iment stations of the University ';f 
California that the black scale is of lit- 
tle or no detriment to their orchards. 
To be sure the learned professor says: 
"It is conceded by all that the insect 
does an immense amount of injury." 
But then his reasoning upon "the eco- 
nomics of the scale" is such clear logic 
and shows conclusively that the damage 
may be very easily overcome. He has 
sifted these injuries into three classes: 

"First— That occasioned by withdiraw- 
al of sap from the plant. 

"Second— The injured tissue resulting 
from the punctures of the insect. 

"Third— The excretions of the insect 
with the accompanying injury to the 
foliage and fruit by the accumulation of 
dust and the fungi. 

"(1.) The loss of sap involves the loss 
to the plant of a certain amount of food- 
material and of water. The seriousness 
of the loss depends upon the number of 
scale insects and the condition of the 
plant. The exact amount of sap extract- 
ed' cannot be estimated with any degr3e 
of exactness, but must be many times 
the weight of the insects. The weight of 
the insects is not as much as one migitt 
imagine; they may amotmt, on an or- 
ange tree, to the weight of an orange, 
or possibly two or three, if a large tree 
and badly infested. The loss of water ;s 
probably more than that evaporated 
from that amount of fruit, and the loss 
of food-material also larger; but taking 
the amount at double, the loss from 
this source might be equaled by remov- 
ing, say half a dozen oranges early in 
the season." 

It requires an immense amount of 
genius to think a thunk like the abov?, 
and it is surprising that some one has not 
years ago discovered that the injury 
done to an orange tree by the black scale 
could be overcome by the picking of 
half a dozen green oranges. Now that 
the idea has been struck upon by thi,^ 
Moses of the entomological world it is 
to be hoped that no orange rancher 
whose orchard is infested will be so 
thoughtless or economical as to neglect 
this simple duty "of relnoving his half 
dozen oranges early in the season." 

"(3.) The excretions of the insect con- 
sists of a copious watery material which 
on drying becomes slightly sticky and 
probably oonitairs a very small amount 
of sugar. It holds the dust firmly and 
seems to be a very suitable med'ia for 
the development of fungi, especially the 
species known as the "black smut" fun- 
gus. The secretion sometimes gums up 
some of the breathing pores, but this can 
hardly be counted an injury as the leaf 
has a sunerabundance of these pores, 
and chieflv situated on the under side of 
the leaf where they are safe from this 
contingencj-. The dust and fungi pro- 



duce injury in two ways: By coveiin^ 
a leaf and forming a screem through 
which the action of the sun on the- 
chlorophyl of the leaf in elaborating food 
is diminished; and second, by disfigur- 
ing the fruit, making a washing neces- 
sary and e^n tailing an expense and de- 
crease in market value. These injuries 
are of a most serious nature, and the 
latter, in the case of citrus fruits, is 
often far in excess of the amount thai a 
gas treatment (the most expensive 
method) would cost. In most situations 
the dust is a very inconspicuous element 
of the smut, and in such cases the ap- 
plication of a funigicide might be thj 
cheapest and most satisfactory treat- 
ment. A thorough washing spray of 
water repeated often enough would keejj 
a tree clean no matter how badly i;;- 
fested." 

So it appears that the third injury 
named by our state entymologist is "of 
a most serious nature" if left to itself, 
but is really very easily overcome by 
the "applicatiion of a fungicide." It is 
a pity that the professor should have 
brushed over this matter of fungicides, 
as he has done, with a simple stroke 
of a pen, because it might be of practi- 
cal knowledge to the rancher to know 
the name of a fungicide and the methoa 
of applying it. There is a large list of 
fungicides. We would suggest, not to 
cumber the situation, but three, bata- 
napthol, oxynapthoic acid and the sim- 
ple oil of cloves. Any one of these fungi- 
cides might be applied by an automatic 
machine, attached, to each scale, that 
would spray once in twenty-four hours 
the "sopious watery material" exuded 
from the scale. These machines un- 
doubtedly could be made very cheaply 
in Japan, where labor is cheap. These 
machines could be removed at the end 
of the season and stored' for future use. 

The most practical suggestion in thi.< 
marvelous report is that "a thorough 
washing spray of water repeated often 
enough would keep a tree clean, no mat- 
ter how bad'ly infested." It is a pity 
that our "professional entymologis:" 
does not state how often it would be 
necessary to apply the spray of water, 
for it is such a simple method. In those 
districts where the water is not under 
pressure but delivered in open ditches, 
all that would! be' necessary to put this 
practical method in use would be the 
erection of a tank ajDout 100 feet high 
in order to get the necessary pressure 
for spraying: a pumping apparatus to 
put the water in the tank and the pin- 
ing of the orchard with wrought iron 
pipe, a number of faucets andi a few 
hundred feet of hose. One of the great 
advantages of this method would be th-^ 
employment of numberless boys to hold 
the nozzles and squirt water on the trees. 
Such an outfit on a ten-acre ranch 
should not cost to exceed^ $250 per acre. 

"The second- class of injury by the 
black scale, viz.. that caused by th? 



puncture * * * where the insect m- 
serfs its beak." W^ll we won t say much 
about this, but any American who has 
not ingenuity enough to fill up the 
holes made by so insignificant a little 
creature as the black scale, does not 
deserve to be a rancher in California, 
but should devote his attention to peda- 
gogics, electricity or one of the learned 
professions. 

The conclusion of this portion of the 
report is as follows: "It can thus be 
seen that each kind of injury from the 
attack of black scale can. be reduced^ to 
practically nothing by the use of meth- 
ods which are not calculated to destroy 
the insect." 

In other words, the injury done by 
these supposed pests can all be sur- 
mounted without any injury to the tree 
or its fruit except the loss of half a doz- 
en oranges, and by the humane methods 
suggested these innocent little lecani- 
ums can be permitted to live out their 
natural lives without the cruel and in- 
human treatment which many of the 
ranchers have been in the habit of giv- 
ing. 

PREPOSTEROUS PRETENSIONS 
EXPOSED. 

The worthlessness of Prof. E. W. Hil- 
gard/'s pretensions, that he could tell 
what plant foods were necessary from 
an analysis of the soil, are shown, up very 
clearly as the light of history is cast 
upon his record. 

In January, 1892, the professor, in an- 
swering an article that had appeared in 
the public press on Soil Analysis Not 
An Indicator of the Plant Food Re- 
quired, in which article the writer had 
set forth that the only way to ascertain 
the required plant foods was by actual 
field tests, propounded these question:;: 

"When soil analysis has determined 
that potash exists abundantly and even 
in the soluble form .not only in the ir- 
rigation waters, but also in the soils of 
the valley of South California, will Dr. 
Woodbridge still think it necessary to 
try potas'h fertilizer there? When th^:? 
same process shows the extreme scarcity 
of humus in these same (mesa) soils, 
being a mere fraction; of what is always 
found in productive soils elsewhere, will 
he doubt that the supply of nitrogen 
will be the first thing needful when 
crops fall short? If so, let him inquire 
among those to whom I have recom- 
mended Chile saltpeter on the ground 
of this analytical indication, and' asK 
what has been the result in the thrift 
of their citrus trees. When analysis 
shows the same soil to contain an abund- 
ance of lime, would Dr. Woodbridge stiU 
put his client to the trouble and' expense 
of trying the liming process?" 

Again, in a lecture published as bulle- 
tin No. 61 by the state boardt of horti- 
culture, 1892. page 11. Prof. Hilgard said: 
"I have already told you that by far 
the majority of California soils is ricli 
in lime, so as to render liming, so much 



practiced in the east, an unprofitable 
operation here. That knowledge was 
obtained by analyzing the soils of ihe 
state. Well, the same series of analyses 
has showni that what is true of lime is 
nearly as true of potash— not quite so 
much, for while in the case of lime the 
proportion between eastern and Cali- 
fornia is one to over ten, in the ca.<e uf 
potash it is about as one to four in favor 
of our soils. You see that to invest heav- 
ily in potash fertilizers, as you are fre- 
quently advised to do, is likely to be in 
very many cases a useless expendi- 
ture." * * * 

"But these same orange soils of ours 
are not very rich in phosphoric acid' and 
nitrogen; therefore I would advise 
growers to spend' their valuable cash 
for these only, and not for "complete fer- 
tilizers," 

"With more than four and one-half 
years' experience since the professor at- 
tempted to squelch our efforts to get at 
the actual needs of the crops by putting 
the question to the soil and getting the 
answer in the crop through test plots, we 
have had these same soils to deal wilh 
that Professor Hilgard was referring to, 
and have found that where potash was 
so abundant that bhe soil contained 
over one per cent, or about 100,000 pounds 
of potash per acre for only two feet in 
depth, an amount that would last the 
average orange crop 2000 years, that 
the application of 150 pounds of potasli 
salts per acre per annum is indispensa- 
ble. 

The professor him self in his la-^t 
report gives an account of samples that 
"were grown by D. L. "Wilbur of the 
West Riverside Land company. River- 
side county, and' are fair averages of 
the fruit from many five-year-old trees, 
and were not fancy selections; the aim 
being to have them of the same size and 
grown untler similar conditions. The soil 
Is a fair average of that within the Ga.^e 
canal lands, which, according to analy- 
sis, contain .87 per cent of potash and .17 
of phosphoric acid. To test the effect Df 
potash fertilizers, samples were taken 
from trees that had had no application of 
the potash, and. on the other hand, from 
trees that a year previous had been, fer- 
tilized with one pound of muriate of 
potash per tree. Both lots had' an ap- 
plication of nitrates and. phosphates. 
The trees of both lots are of good color 
and rank in growth, and no differeni;e 
is notable between those fertilized and 
those non-fertilized. The oranges of the 
unfertilized trees were more elongated 
in shape than the others; the latter be- 
ing, on the whole, well rounded, or more 
perfect in shape, and rather deeper in 
color tint. The skin and "rag" were 
about the same for both lots, and rather 
thick and heavy, but easily separated 
from the flesh. The flesh was tender and 
juicy. The naval portions of many of the 

oranges of the unfertilized trees extends 
:and sreads into the flesh, while that of 



the fertilized is con'fined to the end of the 
fruit. 

"A glance at the results of analysis 
shows that, while the oranges of the two 
lots were practically the same in weigh:, 
those not treated with potash have a 
thicker rind and a larger average of 
juice, and those treated' with potasn 
nave a large amount of pulp. 

"The ash of the oranges was nearly the 
same in both lots, but in that of the pot- 
ash lot the percentage of potash is a lit- 
tle higher than in the other, of phos- 
phoric acid there is 5 per cent more in 
the no-potas'h lot. 

"In the juice the potash seems to have 
had a slight effect in increasing the 
sweetness, as there is 1.3 per cent more in 
total sugar than in the other. The cane 
sugar was increased but .56 per cent. 
Had sulphate of potash been used in- 
stead of the muriate, the effect might 
have been greater. The citric acid was 
not influenced." 

On page 176 a table is published, whicn 
is made the basis of the above comment, 
wherein two test plots are referred to. 
No. 1 was fertilized with nitrogen and 
phosphoric acid, and No. 2 was fertil- 
ized with nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 
potash. __ ^ ^.,. , 

Extract from table— In o. 1, fertilized 
with nitrogen and phosphoric acid— Solid 
contents by spindle, 12.40 per cent; total 
sugars, 11.56 per cent. No. 2, fertilized 
with nitrogen, phosphoric acid and; pot- 
ash—Solid contents by spindles, 13.70 per 
cent; total sugars, 12.51 per cent. Differ- 
ence in solid contents by spindles, 1.30 
per cent; in total sugars, .95 per cent. 

So slipshod and careless is Prof. Hil- 
gard that he has confounded the solid 
contents of juice with the total sugar 
contents of it, and has referred three 
times in the short paragraph to plot No. 
1 as an unfertilized plot, and' has stated 
that plot No. 2— the nitrogen, potash 
and phosphoric acid plot— contained 1.30 
per cent more sugar, when, in fact, and 
reality it only contained .95 per cent 
more. He failed to state that this was 
an increase of sugar of over S per cent. 
It is but fair to state that this plot was 
tried contrary to the advice given by 
Prof. Hilgard, for in the Riverside Press 
of August 1, 1893, he said : "By all means, 
let some Riversider try the use of potash 
salts to settle his doubts in the premises; 
but let him try it Simon pure, and not 
mixed with phosphates and nitrates in 
a complete fertilizer, or else his test will 
amount to nothing." 

We think this test has amounted to 
something, for, as he states, the navel 
portion of many of the oranges of th-2 
unfertilized (?) trees extends ani 
spreads into the flesh, while that of the 
fertilized is confined to the end of the 
fruit. And those not treated with pot- 
ash have a thicker rind. And he further 
shows that those fertilized with the 
complete fertilizer contained more than 
8 per cent of sugar. It was the opinion of 
Prof. Wickson, who has had large expe- 



rience in such matters, that the oranges 
from plot No. 2 contained 25 per cent 
more points in favor of flavor than, the 
oranges from plot No. 1. 

A test plot was put out by the writer 
on the Richards ranch, at North Pomo- 
na, in January, 1893, and the fertilizers 
were renewed in the spring of 1894. On 
the 22d of April, 1895, oranges were tak- 
en from each plot. The samples, duly 
numbered, were taken to the packing 
house and the superintendent instructed 
to pack one-half of them from each plot 
in separate boxes and to send one box 
to Prof. Hilgard and the other to Messrs. 
Wade & Wade of Los Angeles, who, with 
the writei-, made the analysis. 

The oranges on the manuredi plot were 
inferior, the surface being sunken away 
and soft in many places as though in 
these spots the rind was more cured 
than in the balance, and the fruit was 
soft and. somewhat puffy. 

Plot 2 — the nitrogen plot — contained 
more puffy oranges than any other plot. 

Plots 8 — the phosphoric acid' and pot- 
ash plot— and 9— the nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid and potash plot — were fai' 
ahead, in general appearance, of any 
oranges from other plots, and plot 9 — 
the complete fertilizer — was of a mucn 
deeper color. The leaves on plot 9, also, 
showed a much deeper and healthier 
color. 

To comment fully on the above tabu- 
lated) results would, require too much 
space. We will, therefore, call attention 
to but three points: 

First, the percentage of sugar was 
raised in plot 9 — the nitrogen, phos- 
phoric and potash plot — by comparison 
with plot 1 — where no fertilizer was ap- 
plied — 37.6 per cent. The rind was re- 
duced 22.5 per cent, i. e. : the same 
amount of oranges that would produce 
100 pounds sugar from plot 1 would pro- 
duce 137.5 pounds from plot 9; the same 
amount of oranges that would produce 
100 pounds of peel from plot 1 would 
produce only 77.5 pounds from plot P, 
and the general appearance to the eye 
was by all odds the best. 

Commenting on another systeimatic 
plot set of samples, the professor has 
this to say on page 173: "Muriate of 
potash does seem to corroborate the ex- 
perience at Riverside that the potash 
tends to increase the sugar contents 
more than barnyard manure." 

In addition to the facts above statc-d 
it is pertinent to the subject matter to 
state that many of our bpst, largest and 
most successful growers are using in 
addition to nitrates and phosphates 
potash salts and' are perfectly satisfied 
with the results. 

It will thus be seen, from the facts and 
figures above given founded upon actual 
practice in the field, how far from fhe 
truth Prof. Hilgard has been in try- 
ing to establish from an- a priori line of 
reasoning the reputation for himself 
that he could tell from an analysis of 



the soil whether potash was neededi or 
no. When it comes to the matter of 
nitrogen the professor has placed him- 
self in a more absurd position than in 
the case of potash, for he had advised 
the use of "nitrogen on account of the 
extreme scarcity of humus in our 
soils;" but after some twen'ty years of 
experience, he reported at the last 
farmers' institute, held at Monrovia, 
that the humus, although deficient here, 
"has many times more nitrogen than the 
humus found in the soils elsewhere." 
And' thus he has to admit that "when 
the crops begin to fall short nitrogen is 
not the first thing needful." If the pro- 
fessor had followed' in the wake of the 
great army of agricultural chemists the 
world over and systematically estab- 
lished a series of test plots he would 
have discovered, or at least the results cf 
the crops would have shown, his error in 
a year or two. To illustrate the error of 
the professor's way we will give but a 
single example. He analyzed, some four 
or five years ago, the soil of the Crank 
and Brigdon ranches at or near Laman- 
da Park, and upon his analysis advised 
that nitrogen was all that was needed. 
His advice was followed, and nitrate of 
soda was used, with no goodi results; 
the following year he advised the use cf 
phosphates, and they were used with no 
good results; the owners then gave up 
"scientific advice" as worthless and 
have since been using "complete fertil- 
izers" in the shape of stable manures 
with fair results. 

In regard to the liming process, the 
professor told the people at the farmers' 
institute above referred to tihat thc-y 
did not need it in the San Gabriel val- 
ley, as analysis of their soils showed 
that they contained an abundance. The 
fact is that the progressive people of 
that locality use large quantities of it 
with most beneficial effects. We could 
give names and places, but we expect to 
take up this liming matter more fully 
at a later date. 

In order to show how utterly worth- 
less are Prof. Hilgard's pretensions that 
he "can advise people as to the needs 
of their crops from an analysis of their 
soils," we produce a copy of a letter 
sent recently from his pen. Mr. Hall 
had written inquiring as to the proper 
method of irrigation, and asking what 
fertilizers should be applied to his twelve 
or fourteen-year-old- apricot trees: 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Col- 
lege of Agriculture, Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station, E. W. Hilgard, Di- 
rector. Berkeley, Cal., August 6, 1893. 
(Dictated.) 

A. W. Hall, East Highland, Oal. : Dear 
Sir — In reply to yours of July 26t'h, I 
would say that I am afraid that you have 
not planted on your land the right kind 
of trees in such shallow soil. Peaches 
or almonds would have been, much bet- 
ter adapted for the condiitions, and I 
hardly know what adVice to give you in 
regard to fertilization, as I do not think 



City creek alluvium needs it yet. Your 
trees, I think, are in the same predica- 
ment as they are elsewhere when lo- 
cated on hardpan; they throve finely 
as long as their roots were satisfied with 
three feet of soil, but when they grew 
so large that the roots had to reach out 
for more depth and moisture, they got 
'stone instead of bread.' 

I would replace the dead trees with 
peaches or almonds if the locality is suit- 
ed to the latter, and on the remaind.^r 
try abundance of stable manure and 
irrigation — frequent rather than abund- 
ant at any one time. Try to maintain 
the apricot trees in goodi heart. I im 
not sure that this will be successful, bui 
it may be. Your case falls within the 
purview of the article in our last report 
(page 114) on Naturally Faulty Land 
and Their Correction. Very truly yours, 
E. W. HILGARD. 

Could anything illustrate more clearly 
the worthlessness of the professor's pre- 
tensions, his incompetency andi inability 
than this letter? 

His thirty-five j^ears' experience in 
analyzing virgin soils makes him say 
"in regard to fertilization I do not think 
that City creek alluvium needs it yet." 
Yet the professor in the next paragrayn 
says "try abundance of stable manure' 
• * * "but I am not sure that th=s 
will be successful." 

It will thus be seen that from advis- 
ing the use of nitrogen, the professor 
changed to nitrates and phosphates, and 
at present is advising nitrates, phos- 
phates and potash, but still he is not 
sure that this combination will be suc- 
cessful. It is small wonder that Prof. 
Hil'gardi tries to belittle a system of 
practical field tests, when they expos? 
the worthlessness of his preposterous 
pretensions tliat he can from his labora- 
tory in Berkeley advise people from 
analysis of their soils what kind of plant 
food© they need. 

MR. HAYNE'S INCOMPETENCE. 

We are indebted to the California 
Fruit Grower for the following report of 
the grape growers' meeting at San Jos.-: 

"A considerable number of persons in- 
terested in viticulture in this county as- 
sembled on Saturday to listen to the ad- 
dress by Mr. A. P. Hayne, instructor m 
viticulture at the University of Califor- 
nia, on the best mode of combating th<> 
ravages of the phylloxera lately discov- 
ered in so many of the vineyards weet 
of this city. Mr. Hayne laid before the 
meeting a table, printed in large char- 
acters, showing how long a vineyard 
must be kept submerged' by water tc 
drown out the insects; the period vary, 
ing, according to the permeability of the 
ooil, from fifty-five to 105 consecutive 
days. The water, too, must be at least 
three feet deep all over the surface of the 
vineyard to do the required' good. The 
necessary daily supply to compensate 
for loss by seepage and evaporation 



was also given with great accuracy. As 
the vineyards represented are on the 
foothills from 150 to 700 feet above water 
level this mode of ejecting an unwelcome 
guest did not appear to the audience 
very promising. 

"Mr. Hayne then spoke of gas lime as 
an antidote or remedy, but before going 
far with this branch of the subject he in- 
quired whether lime was used in the 
purification of gas in San Jose. A per- 
son in the audience responded in a some- 
what sepulchral voice, 'No gas lime in 
San Jose,' which ended that chapter. 

"The speaker's next method was to 
fight the pest with bisulphide of carbon, 
and this was the method he recommend- 
ed. The mode of application was to in- 
troduce the liquid, bisulphide into the 
soil a foot or two below the surface liy 
means of an injector, which he de- 
scribed, where it would vaporize, and i-s 
fumes, spreading outward and down- 
ward, would kill the roots of the vines 
and many of the infesting insects, after 
which, the infected places could be 
planted with resistant stocks already 
rooted and grafted, or with rooted' re- 
sistant cuttings for future grafting. He 
here paid his respects to Prof. Hu;i- 
mann, who, as he said, lately in the Ru- 
ral Press advocated letting the vinos 
die a natural death, and then- replant- 
ing the whole vineyard at once, so as to 
have a uniform growth. This policy the 
lecturer ridiculed as extravagant and 
wasteful, thoug*h if any one present 
felt that he could afford to wait i;iH 
his whole vineyard was destroyed and 
then replant it all at once, there was no 
objection to his trying the experiment. 
He thought himself the preferable way 
was to treat the infested parts with 
carbon bisulphide, and after this had 
done its work by killing the vines and 
numerous insects, to dig up andi burn 
the dead vines. To d'ig them up before 
killing them would probably bring liv- 
ing insects to the surface and scatter 
them over the neighboring soil. To an 
inquiry as to the quantity of bisulphide 
necessary for the treatment proposed, 
he replied that eight ounces per square 
yard would, he thought, be sufficient. 
Some one then demanded the number of 
square yards in an acre, and' it was pre-s- 
ently pointed out that the treatment 
proposed would call for 2420 pounds rf 
bisulphide per acre, which, at 8 cents per 
pound, would cost $193 per acre for mi- 
terials, independent of the expense of 
application. Here t he discussion among 
the audience became so animated that 
the lecture was for some time interrupt- 
ed, until the chairman called to order 
and requested the gentlemen present lo 
withhold comment until they had first 
exhausted all the information the lec- 
turer could furnish, after which they 
could discuss the questions of economy 
among themselves while their visitors 
returned home on the train. 
"Order having been secured, the lee- 



turer proceeded to discuss I'esistant 
stocks and replanting. He presented a 
long list of vines with a statement of 
their relative powers^ of resistance to 
phylloxera adjusted to a scale of 20 
as a maximum. This, he said, was 
compiled from the experience of France, 
Italy, Germany, etc. Of the riparia 
which had' been most largely propa- 
gated for resistants, he stated there 
were 150 varieties, some of which wei'e 
better, some worse and many wortii- 
less; but to an inquiry for the names 
of the really resistant varieties of the 
riparia he regretted that the boy who 
had packed his illustrations for the lec- 
ture iiad left that list out and put in 
these lists of vines of inferior resistance. 
Without his list he could not give the 
names, but he agreed to furnish them 
for publication to the secretary. As to 
grafting and replanting after the stocks 
had been selected, he adivocated rooting 
the cuttings in the nursery, and at the 
end of the first or second year tak'ng 
them up, grafting them on the bench, 
and returning them to the nursery rows 
for another year before planting oui. 
He preferred this method, using stocks 
about the size of his little finger, rathrr 
than' field grafting, where much tim^^ 
was lost in moving from one stock to 
another. This opinion elicited disseiit 
from practical men present, and more 
discussion arose, after which Mr. Hayn-^ 
retired from the platform and' was sud 
ceeded by Mr. Woodworth, who lec- 
tured on the phylloxera from an ento- 
mological point of view." 

That this address of Mr. Hayiie 
Clearly proves his incompetence and his 
inabihty to advise practical men, we 
tljink there is no question. His lack 
of practical information is painful For 

fZ ^.''''.\ ^^ ^^y^ that the submersion 
for phylloxera must be carried for C5 
to 105 consecutive days. Valery Mayet 

pl-%f't^".r),^^'^^'^^' authority, places il 
at Zb to 40 dayjB. 

Mr Hayne says that the- water mus^ 
be at least three feet deep all over the 
tw.7.^'^- ^'- ^.^^^t places it at about 
twentj-flve centimeters or one-fourth 
or a meter, or about ten inches. 

Finally, after discovering that sub- 
mersion is generally impracticable in 
the Santa Clara valley vineyards the 
vjiies being located on hillsides' Mr' 
Hayne proposed the extinction treat- 
"^T, ^^ }l^^ '^ to say, he recommended 
I n /ll "]^ ^'"'^^ '" ^" infe&ted spot hp 
i l^n„^^ bisulphide of carbon at a cos- 
of $19o per acre, before they were rooted 
up and new vines planted. 

Could anything be more absurd'' How 
many vineyardists are there in the state 
whose vines are attacked by phylloxera 
Who can afford, to spend the modest sum 
■of $193 per acre for destroying vines be- 
fore replanting with resistant vines? 
The fantastic idiocy of this proposition 
is beyond the power of language to ex- 
press. 



Now, what about this extinction 
treatment so warmly recommendedi by 
Mr. Hayne? It has been thoroughly 
tested in Switzerland and, while it re- 
tards the spread of the pest, it does not 
entirely check it. It has befen tried in 
Algeria with similar resulte. It is good 
in a way, but it isn't worth the expendi- 
ture of any such sum as $193 per acre. 

Mr. Hayne is a comparative stranger 
to the vineyards of this state. He ob- 
tained his first view of them, to any ex- 
ent, as the guest of the state viticultu- 
ral commissioners, who sent hinii with 
Mr. Cos when that gentleman went 
through the state. Of practical experi- 
ence in viticulture, he has, so far as we 
have been able to determine, none what- 
ever. 

We think that the vineyardists would 
do well to discard his theoretical ad- 
vice and reconstitute their vineyards 
under the advice of men like Dresel, 
Bundschu, Crabb, Wheeler, De Turk, 
Wetmore, Doyle, West and others who 
have been handling the phylloxera prob- 
lem for many years in a practical man- 
ner. — Pacific Wine and Spirit Review. 



OUR PROFESSIONAL ENTYMOLO- 
GIST AND WASPS. 

"The common yellow jacket, usually 
calledi the wasp, is oftetn very destruc- 
tive to pears and especially to apricots. 
Mr. J. W. Aytoun of Santa Cruz (Sep- 
tember 19, 1891) reports the wasps as 
completely destroying the fruit of an 
acre raspberry patch. 'When the fruit 
begins to redden it is attacked. These 
pests are exceptionally badi this season 
and never caused trouble in this manner 
before.' 

"This insect passes the winter singly, 
hiding in any convenient place. In the 
sprin'g an old gopher hole or something 
of the kind is selected and a nest con- 
structed by paper manufactured by the 
insect. Soon a considerable colony is 
developed, alL the children of the one 
insect founding the colony. The food 
for the young is chiefly other insects, 
which are destroyed in great numbers. 
The full grown wasp has a fondness for 
fruit, howe^'er, so that while th/e insect 
is otherwise useful, it must be diestroyed 
when abundant. The only practical 
method is the search for and destruction 
of the nests. The best way to extermi- 
nate a mest is to visit it late at night and 
pour into the opening a quarter tumbler 
of carbon bisulphite; a little dirt might 
be thrown over the hole to confine the 
fumes. If the nest be examined the next 
morning all the insects M'ill be found to 
be dead." 

(Extract from the report of work cf 
the agricultural experiment stations of 
the Univeri^ity of California, published 
in June, 1896.) It is to be hoped that Mr. 
Aytoun was a young man and possessed 
of considerable patien'ce when he wrote 
in 1891 to our "professional entymolo- 
glst" in regard to yellow jackets. If 



lO 



he chanced to be an old man at that 
time the information contained in the 
answer to his letter will probably be 
useful to his heirs. Undoubtedly the 
remedy suggested for these pests is 
sure death; but will our "professional 
entymologist" tell us how in thund-r 
to find those nests late at night, or io 
find them at all to the extent of exter- 
mination of their kind. 

It is safe to assume that where wasps 
exist in sufficient numbers to destroy 
a crop of raspberries, that there would 
be at least one to every square foot. ( r 
43.560 per acre, and as they live singly 
what lots of fun and employment Mr 
Aytoun will have in hunting them at 
night! 

As a practical suggestion for th« ex- 
termination of yellow jackets the above 
advice is only equaled by the old receipt 
for catching birds by putting salt ku 
their tails. 

FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 

The feature of the past two weeks in 
agricultural and horticultural circles 
has been the holding of Farmers' insti- 
tutes in San iDego and Orange countie.^ 
and at Pomona, San Gabriel and Santa 
Monica. The institutes under the man- 
agement of Prof. A. J. Cook of Pomona 
college have become a power for good in 
Southern California. These meetings 
have been well attended. Pleasant and 
profitable discussions on live topics have 
taken place from day to day. We pub- 
lish some of the papers below: 

Prof. E. W. Hilgard, director of the 
agricultural experiment stations and 
professor of agriculture, was in attend- 
ance this week and had a full opportu- 
nity to .'^how himself at just exactly his 
full wortli. and he embraced the oppor- 
tunity. He said among other things 
that much more interest was felt ;n 
these meetings in Southern California 
than in those held in the northern part 
of the state, but was at a loss to know 
Avhy. Well, we can tell the professor 
"why. These institutes have become reg- 
ular intellectual feasts in this southern 
country. It is because we have at Ihe 
head of them a real, live, able bodied 
brainy Cook. 

Perhaps the most interesting feature 
of these institutes is the question box. 
wherein any one can put a question, to 
be answered by such persons as the 
president may call upon for that pur- 
pose. 

Some of the questions put gave Prof. 
Hilgard a chance to show his practical 
knowledge. Here is one of the questions, 
together with the learned professor's 
answer, taken down iH shorthand: 

Question — "Are variegated orange 
leaves a sign of disease? If so. what is 
the remedy?" 

Answer — Prof. Hilgard: "It is due to 
a variety of causes and indicates a great 
weakness in vegetation. Variegation 
ha? been due to want of sufficient mois- 



ture, at other times to wet feet. It not 
only affects the oranges, but other fruits, 
aprk'ots, for example. In hard pan the 
roots of the orange trees are certain to 
get into water, and then they will show 
the yellow leaf. Anything that produces 
weakness will produce disease." 

In the professor's wonderful effort to 
produce this last sage sentence he for- 
got to give the remedy asked for, but a 
little thing like the "gist of an argu- 
ment" seldom seems to strike the pro- 
fessor's mind as of any importance. He 
had given causes, which were both "wet 
and dry, and weakness" if not strength 
— why take up the time of an audience 
with a little matter like a remedy? 

The professor was down for a paper 
on The Work of the College. He read, 
or rather spoke, this paper in a tenor 
voice with a slight foreign accent. In 
Pomona he alluded to the adverse crit- 
icism upon him and his college as "ab- 
surd." He gave as a reason why there 
were so few students in his college that 
"there is very little use for agricultural 
experts In this country, as the soil is 
fresh and requires but little art in cul- 
tivation." At San Gabriel he said that 
"preposterous statements, or rather mis- 
statements found ready credence," re- 
ferring to the criticisms on himself and 
his college. He further said that "it had 
been grossly misstated that onlj' one or 
two students enjoy the benefits of in- 
struction at the college." He went on 
to say that about 100 students had been 
enrolled in the classes of the agricultu- 
ral professors and instructors. If this 
is so. he did not tell us how many of the 
students from the academic, scientific 
and classical sections are sent over to 
the agricultural department to receive 
their regular instruction in botany, etc. 
These statements may be truths, but if 
the professor refers to the criticisms 
that have appeared in The Herald he 
is the one' who is "grossly misstating" 
what has been said, as by reference to 
The Herald can be seen. If The Herald 
has made any misstatements it will glad- 
ly correct them, if Prof. Hilgard will 
point thein out. The last register of the 
university shows that in the four classes 
thei-e are nine regular students in the 
agricultural college, four specials and 
two limited, one of the latter being the 
thousand dollar cellar man. The profes- 
sor claimed, as does his last report (see 
pages 72 and 437). that he had made some 
"important experiments' 'in beet grow- 
ing at the Chino station, and that he had 
shown the world that beets of the very 
highest grade could be grown on alkali 
soils. Nothing could be more absurd 
and conceited than these empty claims. 

The facts in the case are as follows: 
Prof. Hilgard had advised several years 
ago that beets could not be grown in 
these soils. Mr. Gird, notwithstanding 
this advice, planted and grewjheih suc- 
cessfully in lSi)l. and every^year since, 
on these alkali soils. "When the grasses 
failed in the spring of 1894" beets were 



II 



planted at the Chino station, and in 
1895 another crop of four acres was 
planted. It is claimed in the report that 
this was done "on a purely experimental 
basis," but wherein the experiment con- 
sisted does not appear, except that "suc- 
cessive plantings" were made. Inquiry 
shows that in these alleged experiments 
no attempts were made to determine if 
either the tonnage, the quantity of the 
sugar or the quality of the juice could 
be improved or the season of harvesting 
the crop at either end could be prolonged 
by the use of the fertilizing elements 
singly, doubly or all three of them to- 
gether, or by different methods of irri- 
gation or cultivation. Mr. Shinn wrote 
the report, and it is very evident that 
both he and Prof. Hilgard are either 
trying to fool the public, or that they 
are both densely ignorant of what an 
agricultural experiment is. The fact is 
that after Mr. Gird has raised beets for 
three years on land adjoining or adja- 
cent to the experiment station , that 
then Prof. Hilgard followed in Mr. Gird's 
wake and planted beets, just as several 
hundred farmers had done and are do- 
ing — nothing more, nothing less. Prof. 
Hilgard is as much off of an even keel 
in this matter of claiming a "beet ex- 
periment" at Chino as he is when he 
asserts (page 72) "that 15 per cent of 
sugar is the standard per cent required," 
or that he raised beets "of the very 
highest grades on alkali ground." 

Prof. Hilgard said "fertilizer experi- 
mentation is a thing to be made after a 
soil has become exhausted. We cannot 
make them at our stations on virgin 
soils." 

We have not the space to show all 
the errors that Prof. Hilgard has made 
during his present visit to Southern Cal- 
ifornia, but reproduce a conversation had 
on Tuesday with Mr. Hache, superin- 
tendent for the Chino Valley Beet Sugar 
company, in charge of the 9000 acres r.f 
beets grown at Chino and Anaheim, in 
order to show some of the professor's 
errors: 

Question — What is the standard per- 
centage of sugar required in beets de- 
livered at Chino? 

Answer — Twelve per cent. 

Prof, ilgard has sent out word tha 
world over that 15 per cent is required. 
See his last report, page 72. 

Question — When did you first plant 
beets on alkali land? 

Answer — In 1891. 

Question — Have you ever grown any 
beets near the experiment station? 

Answer — Yes, sir. In 1891 and subse- 
quently we grew beets successfully very 
near there on the same kind of soil. 

Question — Here is a map (showing map 
from report, page 78) of the ten acres 
belonging to the experiment station, di- 
vided into 169 equal shares. The soil 
of sixty-five of these plots have been 
analyzed, as you see. Are these analyses 
of any practical value in raising beets? 



Answer — No, sir. 

Question — Do you consider that any 
experiment has been tried at the experi- 
ment station near you? 

Answer — I have never seen the result 
of any. 

Question — Has the agricultural ex- 
periment station or college been of any 
service to you in the matter of showing 
you how to grow beets of a larger ton- 
nage or better quality? 

Answer — No, sir. 

Question — Do you consider that they 
have carried on any experimental work 
in regard to beets at the station? 

Answer — ^^No, sir. 

Question — Do you think that something 
can be done to raise the quantity and 
quality of beets by "test plots?" 

Answer — Certainly. 

Question — Are you doing anything in 
the way of experimental work? If so, 
what? 

Answer — We have out a number of 
test plots. 

Question — Do you believe that "test 
plots" are the proper method of showing 
what fertilizers are necessary to be 
used? 

Answer — It is the only way. 



TO EXCUSE IS TO ACCUSE. 

The following letter was received by 
the agricultural editor: 

Editor Herald: I have noticed and 
read with exceeding regret the several 
articles in the agricultural department 
of your paper rellecting upon the work 
and management of the agricultural de- 
partment of our state university. Par- 
don me if I say that in my opinion sucn 
articles are very harmful, although they 
may be and often are written with th'i 
very best of intention. 

I believe that every true citizen of Cal- 
ifornia is proud of our university and 
takes great satisfaction in the thought 
that we, as a state, though so small, 
have two large universities, which right- 
ly receive the respect of the cultured 
people of the world. As the universities 
cannot exist without increasing the re- 
spect for education all over the state, 
they are directly of advantage to every 
citizen of our commonwealth. Every 
school and college is also helped by the 
success of our universities. If there is 
anything in our state that gives promise 
of a brighter and better future, I believ^e 
it is the fact that our two universitiss 
of the north are crowded with students. 
When Stanford university started, the 
University of California made a grand 
stride forward. When the two universi- 
ties of the north are successful, everj' 
educational institution of our state will 
feel the impulse and receive added lif ?. 
I believe that our state university is 
doing more for the reputation and real 
advancement of our people than any 
other one thing in the state. 

It is a sad fact that even yet there are 
among us many people who sneer at 



12 



higher education and are only too ready 
to grasp at anything that shall hinder 
its progress or stay the work of our 
higher educational institutions. Thu.s, 
I believe, that any word of criticism upon 
any department of the university tent's 
to injure the institution, and this is to be 
deprecated by all true lovers of learnitig. 
If this be true, I can but believe that, 
granting there was foundation for all 
the harsh words regarding the agricul- 
tural department, it would still be a mis- 
take to send forth such articles in the 
public press. I have no doubt that the 
regents of the state university are fully 
alive to its interests and greatly desire 
to do everything that will further them. 
They are right at the seat of action, ami 
certainly are better prepared to judge 
of the work of each department than can 
any one be who is so far removed as wo 
are in Southern California. Would it 
not be much wiser to send criticisms to 
them rather than to publish them in the 
press, and thus send them broadcast in 
the state, to prejudice the minds of those 
who are already opposed to higher edu- 
cation? This would be a far more 'f- 
fective method, and without any evil re- 
sults. 

But to the especial subject of criticism • 
I have known Dr. E. W. Hilgard, as a 
scientist and educator, for more thnn 
twenty years. I have often had occa- 
sion to study closely his work, and be- 
lieve that it stands among the best don^ 
in our oeuntry. I believe him to be on^ 
of the most careful and painstaking of 
our scientists, and he has certainly been 
untiring as an investigator in the 
realm of science. T also know that very 
few of the scientists of our country have 
a better or better-earned reputation as 
a scientific investigator than he has. 
Indeed, his reputation reaches beyond 
our shores, and there is not a country ]n 
Europe where his work is not known ani 
favorably recejived. Again, I mys.^1f 
have been in just such a position for 
twenty-seven years as that occupied by 
Dr. Hilgard, and I know, as few can. thf> 
burden that is upon him. As the work nf 
a teacher, he must keep abreast of tl>: 
times and do hard, honest work for his 
pupils. I believe that Dr. Hilgard dor s 
not slight his work in the least. He is alsj 
at the head of the experiment station, 
and this brings a burden of responsibil- 
ity that no one can appreciate until lie 
has carried it. Frequently a single in- 
vestigation goes through weeks and re- 
quires Immense labor. To my positive 
knowledge. Dr. Hilgard has carried nn 
and is carrying- on just such lines of in- 
vestigation. The burden and responsi- 
bility of such work is often well-nigh 
overpowering. I wish that we might all 
appreciate, that we mierht all say help- 
ful rather than hindering words to one 
who has the burden to carry. Again, 
the correspondence that one has to car- 
ry on in such a position is enormous, 
each letter demands an answer, and oft • 



times the work required to give a suit- 
able answer is heavy indeed. It is not 
surprising that with all these rounds 
uf duties resting upon him. Dr. Hilgard 
should have given offense, and he wouid 
bfe far more than human if he has never 
made mistakes. I have been with Dr. 
Hilgard in attending the farmers" insti- 
tutes for many days together, and I have 
rarely met a scientist who is more ready 
to disclaim perfection than he. In the 
past few weeks 1 have met and talked 
with a large number of our people re- 
garding Dr. Hilgard's work, and, with 
hardly an exception, every one with 
whom I have spoken has referred in 
highest terms to Dr. Hilgard's re- 
searches and the valuable aid he has 
given to our state. 

I believe that the regents of the Uni- 
versity of California are keen in their 
scrutiny of the work of all the depart- 
ments of the university. By their re- 
cent action regarding farmers' institute.^ 
they show that they are very desirous 
to make the work of the agricultural de- 
partment in the fullest degree valuable 
to the farmers. That they will watcn 
carefully our interests in this depart- 
nient and make any needed changes as 
soon as the merits of the case warrant I 
have not a doubt. Shall we not, then, bet- 
ter serve the grand cause of education 
and better minister to the interests of 
the state if we send any criticism that 
may seem called for directly to the re- 
gents of the university, and receive 
from them, as I am sure we always will, 
explanations, probably satisfactory 
ones, rather than to harshly criticise 
the universitj', especially as we may our- 
selves be mistaken? Yours truly, 

A. J. COOK. 
September S, 1S96. 

REPLY. 

Although the above letter in no way 
attempts to answer the specific criti- 
cisms on Profs. Hilgard and Woodworth 
that have appeared in The Herald, it is 
no doubt a commendable impulse that 
has actuated Prof. Cook to fly to thf- 
rescue of his friend; but in doing so we 
think Prof. Cook rather oversteps the 
mark in throwing out the hint that The 
Herald is antagonistic to the state uni- 
versity. Nothing could be farther from 
our purpose. On the contrary, our crit- 
icisms have only been with the view cf 
pointing out lamentable failures in the 
work of one department of the institu- 
tion, that it might be made all that Prof. 
Cook would desire it to be, both in the 
cause of higher education and also in 
the practical fruits of such education. 

The head of one of the departments 
of the university. The Herald deems an 
incompetent official, and its criticisms 
against him have been substantiated "nv 
the facts. Prof. Hilgard has built up his 
reputation upon ex-parte statements, 
which do not bear the light of investiga- 
tion. For example, he has told the pub- 
lic, and he teaches his students, that he 



13 



could "from an analysis of the virgin 
soil, tell what plant toods were necessary 
to be appliea." This statement, like 
many others coming from him, as direc- 
tor of the California Agricultural col- 
lege was accepted as true, and the world 
accepted it is truth, but investigation, 
by putting the question to the soil and 
getting the answer in the crops, shows 
that Prof. Hilgard was in error in a mat- 
ter of vital importance to the agricul- 
tural interests of our entire state. 

The object of The Herald in exposing 
an incompetent and high-priced official 
is merely that a proper, competent and 
scientific official may preside at the 
head of our agricultural college, to the 
end that the university may have its 
full scope of usefulness and be a help to 
the struggling ranchers, an honor to the 
state and a blessing to our people. 

The Herald has had every confidence 
in the ability and integrity of Prof. A. 
J. CooK of Pomona college and it would 
like to make him judge of its criticisms 
and leave it to him to pass upon the truth 
or falsity of the charges against Prof. 
Hilgard, provided that Prof. Cook will 
admit that a scientific man would be 
willing to accept the facts, test them fair- 
ly, and then be able and willing to state 
them in a case as they exist, or, in other 
words, a scientific man must always 
tell the truth. 

The Herald would respectfully remind 
Prof. Cook that it is not the province of 
the modern newspaper to cover up the 
incompetency and shortcomings of high 
public officials by suppressing their rec- 
ords or in glossing them over with a. thin 
coat of veneer, nor is it in accordance 
with the genius of our institutions that 
we should reverence and excuse a high 
public official simply because he occu- 
pies a high office, but we should rever- 
ence, respect and honor a high publi.: 
official in proportion as he brings honor 
upon his office. 

No greater danger threatens the body 
politic today and the demoralization of 
our youth than the tendency to a low 
standard in those who are high in posi- 
tion and attempts to overlook the short- 
comings and incompetency of those who 
are feeding at the public crib and have 
the spending of the public funds. 

SOME SCIENTIFIC FARMINGS OF 
PROF. HILGARD. 

When Prof. Hilgard wasi at the last 
Farmers' institute he said that he w.as 
ssnecially sent down here and charged 
by the regents of the university to asic 
what the ranchers of this section of the 
state most needed in the way of help 
from the university. 

We have been telling Prof. Hilgard 
for the last five years that what the 
ranchers needed more than anything 
else was to know how to raise fruit of a 
better quality or greater quantity or 
both than they are now doing. 

We have also told him how this could 



be done and have actually demonstrated 
how it had been done. At first Prof. Hil- 
gard said we could not do it in the way 
we pointed out, and after we had actu- 
ally demonstrated that it could be done 
he belittled not only our efforts, but 
the system by which we arrived at con- 
clusions. See his last report, page 173. 

Mr. Shinn said in his address at the 
Farmers' institute that there are over 
30,000,000 growing fruit trees in Califor- 
nia. Prof. Hilgard has said plainly that 
test plots were not adapted to Califor- 
nia, because it would take too long by 
that method to get at results. 

At the last Farmers' institute he said 
"we cannot carry on fertilizer experi- 
mentation at the stations on virgin soils," 
but he gave himself "dead away" when 
he said a few minutes later, "fertilizer 
experimentation is a matter to be carried 
on by private enterprise and farmers' 
clubs," although in his last report he- 
claims that the method is complex and 
intricate, and should be carried on by 
experts. He has, also, said that it takes 
too long to get conclusions by this inetli- 
od. Well, it is about five years since we 
pointed out to the learned professor the 
method, and three or four since we put 
it into practical use. During all that 
time Prof. Hilgard, sticking to his soil 
analysis theory, has not shown how he 
has improved the quality or quantity of 
a single crop, so far as> we have been 
able to learn, although he does show the^ 
results of some of the work of the writer 
in his last report, which shows how a 
crop was improved, and then goes on to 
belittle the method by which the crop 
was improved. 

As to the impracticability of Prof. 
Hilgard's method of analyzing the soil 
to determine what plant foods are neces- 
sary, we have only to look at his report, 
pages 69-91, show"ing the amount of woric 
that was done on the 10 acres at Chino. 
Ther6 are 260 determinations made 
from this 10-acre plot, and a con- 
servative estimate would be that it 
would take a chemist at least twenty 
days to make them. Assuming for the 
minute that these analyses are of some 
practical value (but they are not), it 
would take a chemist two days to anal- 
yze the soil from an acre, or to deter- 
mine by analyses the 300,000 acres of 
trees already set out in California, :t 
would take 600.000 days' work, or it would 
take 2000 chemists at work 300 days in the 
year in order to analyze the soils of the 
orchards already put out, to say nothing 
about the other crops in the state; 
or it ■n^ould take for these analyses the 
modest sum of ,$3,600,000. and accord- 
ing to Prof. Hilgard's report, it would 
be necessary to do this work every year, 
because he shows conclusively that no 
two samples of the soil analyzed alike 
on his 10-acre plot, and he says in el- 
fect that not even duplicates from these 
plots would be alike in seasons of dif- 
erent amounts of precipitation of rain. 



14 



Here is practical farming with a ven- 
geance. 

We show below by conversations with 
ranchers in the neighborhood of the ex- 
periment station of what practical value 
this immense amount of work on the 10- 
acre plot at Chino has been to them. 

There is one conclusion in regard lo 
this immense amount of work on this 
10-acre tract that Prof. Hilgard has not 
drawn, and that is the only conclusion 
that can be drawn from this work, thnt 
each particular spot where a beet seed 
would be planted w^ould have to be anal- 
yzed in order to know what plant fooils 
could be properly applied, for no two 
spots have analyzed alike. This being 
so, and there being over 40,000 beets per 
acre, and 9000 acres of them, it would re- 
quire ,360,000,000 analyses to be made at 
Chino and Anaheim; or, allowing thir- 
teen determinations for a chemist per 
day, it would be equivalent to 27,692,460 
days' work, or it would take 92, SOS 
cheimsts per year to make these deter- 
minations; or, at the rate the chemist is 
paid at Berkeley, it would cost on the 
9000 acres of beet lands for chemists 
alone, to say nothing of chemicals and 
chemical apparatus, the modest sum of 
$166,154,400; it would take a row of 
desks, end for end, allowing a desk of 
ten feet in length to each chemist, 170 
miles long. To say nothing of the im- 
mense armies of people it would take to 
keep track of the spots where the sam- 
ples were taken from and the beet seeds 
were to be dropped, and the application 
of the different fertilizers to each par- 
ticular spot. And this is called scientific 
farming! 

At the rate Prof. Hilgard has be-"!! 
graduating students at his agricultural 
college, it would only take 60.000 years to 
graduate the requisite number of chem- 
ists to do this work, provided none died 
during the period. And yet Prof. Hil- 
gard said in his address at Pomona: 
"There is very little use for agricultural 
experts in this country, as the soil is 
fresh and requires but little art in culti- 
vation." 

It is little wonder that Prof. Hilgard, 
if he has been in the sublime contempla- 
tion of spending the vast sum of money 
above named and organizing the va:-t 
army of chemists, should have told the 
people of Riverside, when they aski^d 
him how they could grow their orang'-s 
sweeter and with thinner rinds: "Don't 
ask conundrums;" or when the people at 
Pomona asked him what was the cause 
of variegated leaves on the orange, and, 
if it was a disease, what was the remedv. 
that he should have gone off Into a 
guessing dissertation on the causes and 
have neglected to give the remedy; or 
that he had not had time to read Mi-'s 
Tyrrell's thesis in his report, so that he 
might have learned that there was .a 
male black scale and informed his a.=Pist- 
ant. Prof. Woodworth, of that fact. Miss 
Tyrrell had evidently had time to read 



the report of the state board of horti- 
culture, where she undoubtedly learnei 
the fact. 

INTERVIEWS. 

Among others, Mr. Richard Gird was 
seen and interviewed regarding the 
claim of Prof. Hilgard that he had 
made "important experiments" in beets 
at the station at Chino. 

Question— The Herald used your 
name, Mr. Gird, without your permis- 
sion in its issue of the l.')th instant, as 
you were absent in San Francisco. Have 
you any comment on the article? (Here 
the article was read to Mr. Gird.) 

Answer— The Herald has correctly- 
stated the facts, except it might have 
said that Prof. Hilgard was down here 
in person and went over the fields an.i 
said that we could not raise beets on 
them, and when I gave the station that 
10 acres, I tried to get Prof. Hilgard 
to experiment with beets on it, whicli 
he refused to do until farmers on every 
side of the station plot were growing, 
beets successfully. 

Question — Are the analyses of the 
soils made from the sixty-five plots on 
the station land of any use to you or 
the beet growers? 

Answer — Not a bit. 

Mr. Gird's secretary stepped forward: 
and handed out a bulletin from the 
Kentucky station, saying that he re- 
ceived bulletins from the stations of all 
the states, and that most of them w'ere 
reports of how crops had been bettered, 
and asked how it was that he never re- 
ceived a bulletin from our college show- 
ing such results. A little blush of shame 
came over The Herald man as he had 
to admit that our scientists (?) were not 
onto their jobs. 

Mr. G. L. Pierce was interviewed. 

Question — How long have you been 
growing beets? 

Answer — Four years. 

Question — Has the agricultural col- 
lege or the experiment station been of 
any service to you? 

Answer — No. Thej' can't give any 
information. 

Mr. C. A. Moore was interviewed. 

I represent The Herald, Mr. Moore. 

Question (by Mr. Moore) — Do you want 
me to subscribe for The Herald? 

Answer — If you don't read The Herald 
you are the first person that I have 
met today who has owned up to that 
fact. If you don't subscribe for The 
Heraldi and want to become rich and 
wise, you had better do so. No, Mr. 
Moore, I am not here to fict subscribers, 
but to find out if the agricultural college 
and experiment station have been of any 
benefit to you, and if so to record these 
facts. 

Question — Has it been, and if so, what? 

Answ-er — No. it has not been. On the 
contrary. I raise beets down there by the 
station and have beaten them every 
year. 



15 



Mr. E. R. Robinson was next inter- 
viewed. . 

Question— Has our agricultural col- 
lege or the experiment station been of 
any use to you as a beet raiser, in show- 
ing you how to grow beets of a largsr 
tonnage or greater sugar content, or of 
a greater purity of juice? 

Answer— The station has not done me 
any good. 

Question— Have you ever talked wuh 
any one connected with the station on 
the subject? , _ 

Answer— I have. They have been down 
here to get "pointers" from me as to how 
to grow beets. . 

Mr George Moore was interviewed. 

Question— Has the agricultural ocl- 
lege or experiment station been of any 
use to you in showing you how to grow 
better beets or larger quantities per 
acre? 

Answer— No, sii*. 

Question— What good does the agri- 
cultural college or experiment station 

do you? .. , r ^ 

Answer— Don't do a particle of good. 
Tnev are all theory. 

Some thirty other beet growers were 
interviewed in The Herald's attempt 
to find and record some good words in 
favor of our agricultural college or ex- 
periment station, but all to no use. Each 
grower had the same tale to tell as the 
ones above quoted^ 

TOO MUCH LEARNING HAS MADK 
HIM MAD. 

A colored individual, befor' de war, 
was presented with a baby by his wife. 
The next day he said to his massa: 
"Frances dun give me a baby yester- 
day; you can't guess what it is?" "It's 
a boy," was the reply. "No; guess agin." 
"It's a girl," was the reply. "Oh, some 
one dun tole you," said the negro. 

Prof. E. W. Hilgard is in just the 
same position. He dun guessed in 1893 
and previously that nitrogen was the 
"first thing needful when crops began 
to fall short." When the answer came 
back from the trees and the delud-d 
ranchers, "No," he dun guessed again 
that phosphoric acid was the first thing 
needful. See his last report, page 13:!, 
where he says: "The 'presence' of phos- 
phoric acid in greater or less amounts 
depends entirely upon the kind of rocks 
from which the soil is derived. It hap- 
pens that in California most of the rocks 
—and therefore the soils derived from 
them— are poor in phosphates, contrary 
to what happens in Eastern Washington 
and Montana. Hence, phosphates av<i 
among the first ingredients to become 
deficient in California soils, as has been 
amply proved by actual experience Df 
farmers, in whose hands superphos- 
phates and phosphatic guanos have be- 
come the favorite fertilizers from the 
first." 

Here is an assertion in regard to phos- 
phates, and just such a one as he had 



made for years in regard to nitrates, 
and this assertion, like the former, is 
not substatiated by one particle of evi- 
dence. The public would like to know 
who the farmers are, where the reside, 
what kind of crops were grown, how 
much the quality and- quanti'ty were im- 
proved by comparison where no fertil- 
izers were applied, and where the other 
fertilizing- elements were applied, and 
for how many years these tests were 
carried on? 

Prof. Hilgard spends in his depart- 
ment over $40,(H)0 per annum of the pub- 
lic funds, and the public is entitled to 
know the facts he claims to have col- 
lected-, and who have bettered their 
crops, to what extent they have been 
bettered, and how they were bettered. 
The public has been fooled long enough 
by Prof. Hilgard's "glittering general- 
ities." It wants the facts. 
On page 132 the following appears: 
"General conclusions — Some of the 
general conclusions thus gained may be 
thus formulated: 

1. Apart froTTj. the regions of abundant 
rainfall in the higher Sierra foothills 
and in Northern California, and a few 
local exceptions, all the soils of thestaie 
contain as much lime as is useful in 
soils. 

2. The same is almost as generally true 
as regards potash; the amounts present 
are, in the great majority of cases, so 
far in excess of the average found in 
the soils of Europe and the east that the 
experience of those countries cannot 
serve as a guide in considering the re- 
quirements of our soils. Throughout the 
valley lands proper of the great valley, 
as well as in that of Southern California 
and in the valleys of the coast ranges as 
far north as Mendocino, the soil-water 
carries such large amounts of potasn 
salts (in the lakali lands often as much 
as 1000 pounds per acre) that to add 
more in fertilization would be sheer fol- 
ly. While in the uplands adjacent the 
drainage toward the vailey prevents 
such accumulation; the fact that such 
drainage water carries the same salts 
is easily verified, and is apparent from 
examination of the stream waters as 
well. It is, therefore, reasonable to con- 
clude that in the great majority of Cal- 
ifornia soils, potash will be the last one 
of the three ingredients usually supplied 
in fertilizers that need be purchased by 
the farmer." 

Here are some more glittering gener- 
alities, unsupported by one particle of 
evidence. But if the reader will turn to 
pages 172 and 176 of the professor's now 
famous report, he will see that his "the- 
orizing" is completely upset be the act- 
ual field test there reported, which shows 
that potash did improve the crops on 
soils already loaded with it, according to 
his chemical analysis. 

The field tests there reported were put 
out against and contrary to the advice 
of Prof. Hligard. 



1.6 



After asserting that phosphoric aciJ 
is the "'ttrst thing needful," the learned 
professor goes on to say: "Some highly 
important researches, somewhat sur- 
prising, but most conclusive in their n- 
sults, have within the last three yeai's 
been made in Germany. It haS' been es- 
tablished beyond question that the fa- 
vorable effects of even the most finely 
ground bonemeal. as heretofore ob- 
served, are almost wholly due to the 
animal matter or nitrogen contained in 
bones, and that its use to supply know ii 
deficiencies of phosphoric; acid is wholly 
unprofitable and unwarranted by tht- 
returns considered as interest on the in- 
vestment. 

"Bonemeal of various grades of fin-;;- 
ness, raw or steamed, has heretofore 
been sold at prices, based upon the com- 
mercial valuation of both nitrogen ana 
phosphoric acid, with only a slight r. - 
duction upon the full value of soluol'- 
or fully available phosphoric acid us 
supplied in superphosphates. It now 
seems that a farmer cannot afford to 
pay for anything more than the niti'ogon 
value of bonemeal, say atoout if 12 per tor, 
instead of .$28 or $30, which has hitheir'.-) 
been the current price. Tender such a 
reduction, the manufacturer cannot af- 
ford to make bonemeal at all. and thus 
it becomes necessary, from both points 
of view, that bonemeal should, prior t.i 
sale as a fertilizer, be first converted 
into the fully available form by treai- 
nient with enough .sulphuric acid to form 
not necessarily superphosphates, as or- 
dinarily understood, but that interme- 
diate compound which requires only 
al)')ut half as much acid and yet, accord- 
ing to the same investigators, possess»'s 
the full value of soluble phosphoric acid. 
While this will increase somewhat th - 
cost to both the manufacturer and the 
consumer, it is evif^e.ntly the only rea- 
sonable way in i-.liioh this valuable by- 
product can be made fully available fnr 
agricultural use." 

Could idiotic asinity go further? 
After asserting that phosphodic acid, w.is 
the first thing needful, to say that a 
grower cannot afford to pay for th-- 
))hosphates in bone — the very substan./.' 
he does need, but that he can afford ro 
i^ay for the nitrogen, an element which 
he does not need at first. 

In regard to the form of phosphoric- 
acid, the learned professor is as far off 
as he was when he said that beets could 
not be raised on alkali lands at Chino 

We would respectfullj- refer him to 
the latest Massachusetts bulletin o.i 
the value of phosphates in bonemeal, or 
if he will come down to Southern Cali- 
fornia we will show him where phos- 
rdiates from bonemeal and superphos- 
phates have been used side by side and 
see if he can tell which is which. 

The fact is. that phosphates for quick 
!i!owing cT-ops. that is. crops that ma- 
ture in from three to six months, should 
lie fed on supcrijhosphates or hone mad" 



into lloats, at a cost of from eight to 
eight and a half cents per pound for 
jihosphoric acid; whereas crops that are 
growing every day in the year, like cit- 
rus fruits, do exactly as well on a medi- 
um bonemeal at a cost of five to five and 
ome-half cents per pound for the phos- 
phoric acid. These are facts that Prof. 
Hilgard should have discovered for the 
people, instead of having the people 
teach him. Is Prof. Hilgard paid for 
learning or teaching? 

The report goes on to say: 

"In conclusion, I cannot but reiterate 
my recommendation to farmers to adapt 
their mode and methods of fertilizatioi 
to the special requirements of theii- 
crops and lands by the use of the sepa- 
rate ingredients of commercial fertiliz- 
ers, rather than by the purchase of 
ready-made mixtures indiscriminately 
recommended by manufacturers. To 
do so will involve the use of brain woriv 
in the study of the principles- of fertiliza- 
tion, but is certain to result in a material 
saving of outlay foi- the purchase of un- 
necessary ingredients; even more than 
Europe or in the east, where the lands 
have been subjected to all-around de- 
pletion by centuries of culture. In our 
fresh, or relatively fresh, lands a surplus 
of one or more ingredients over those ex- 
isting in the smallest amount, may al- 
most always be expected; and' to in- 
crease the surplus by further addition oi; 
the same ingredients is sheer wastt . 
Sound economy requires that only what 
is needful .'should be used; but those in 
doubt, and having a surplus of this 
world's good, and an indisposition to use 
their brains, may, of course, continue in 
the beaten track." 

Here is a gratuitous insin/uation 
against both the manufacturers of fertd- 
izt-rs and the successful ranchers; thai 
the manufacturer is trying to sell the 
rancher something that he does not need, 
and that the rancher is a fool with his 
money soon parted. If Prof. Hilgard 
had one particle of common sense, he 
would know that the interests of thi> 
manufacturer of fertilizer and the 
rancher cannot be segregated, but are 
identical, and that upon the success of 
the rancher depends the success of the 
fertilizer manufacturer. 

If Prof. Hilgaid would pay some little 
attention to what is going on at home, 
insist that the fertilizer manufactur- 
ers or dealers deliver the quality of 
goods that they pretend to deliver, or, in 
other words, come down to a practical 
basis, have a law passed regulating the 
manufacture and sale of fertilizers, 
show people how they can grow better 
crops, how to keep down soale and other 
nests, stop sending around a press fix?r 
to bolster up his tottering and worth 
less record, instead of wasting his tini" 
over the soils of Montana. Washington, 
the east. Germany and the Hawaiian 
islands, etc.. we might get some results 
that might help the struggling ranchers 
i>r 'lur state. 



THE STATUS OF SOIL ANALYSIS 



By M. L. Wade, B. E. 

Having taken a great interest in wh it 
has been written in The Herald on the 
subject of agriculture, and especially 
soil analysis, I willingly comply with 
The Herald's request to write an arti- 
cle on the above-mentioned subject. 

It is not my intention to contend 
that an application of nitrogen will 
make the skin of an orange or lemon 
puffy, or that phosphoric acid will give 
out under the continuous exhaustion -.1 
any one crop before nitrogen; neither 
do I contend that irrigation waters will 
or will not, when laden with solub'.v' 
potash, furnish all of that ingredient 
necessary for a growing crop. 

While all of this discussion has been 
going on as to whether a soil analysis 
will fuinish all necessary data to guide 
the agriculturist in the proper applica- 
tion of fertilizers to the soil, the idea 
was suggested that it would be well to 
investigate the present status of soil 
analysis, and to see even if we- were, 
with the correct results before us, en- 
abled thereby to give a correct diagno- 
sis of the condition of the soil and to 
make a proper application of the reme- 
dy decided necessary; whether the ac- 
curacy in the analytical operations In 
the laboratory were developed suffi- 
cientlj' to guarantee reasonably reliab'e 
results and in the space of time th.it 
would make it worth while to put the soil 
to that sort of a test. 

While I have for a number of years 
made a study of this special subject, as 
far as pertains to the laboratory work, 
in the analysis of soils, and after a thor 
ough investigation of all important au- 
thorities on the subject, I am compell'_> 1 
to say that there is really no standard 
method of analysis that will meet the 
requirements of accuracy, dispatch and 
economy. 

In this brief article it would be iinpo« - 
sible to .cite all of the authorities, so T 
will bring forward the leading ones of 
this country, whose statements will 
not be doubted by any one. I refer to the 
works of the Association of OfHcial Aq- 
ricultural Chemists and to the late-t 
work of Piof. H. W. Wiley of the agri- 
cultural department at Washington, D. 
C. 

The first investigation of the associa- 
tion were commenced within the past 
A^ery few years. This a.^sociation began 
by first investigating all the different 
methods of soil analysis, with a view of 
selecting the most reliable, in order lo 
carry on a scientific investigation and 
at the same time improve the metho Is- 
of orocedure. 

The renort of the association in Bul- 
letin 31 of the TTnited States department 
of agriculture. 1S91. shows that its tini - 
was consumed in fixing the size of th'-~' 
holp in the sievp to be used in soil anwl- 
ysis. This uns the beginning of th- 



practical investigations. This report is 
about as important as the size of tne 
hole in the sieve recommended, which is 
the one-sixth hundredth and twenty- 
fifth part of a square inch. 

In the report for 1S92, Bulletin 35, the 
reporter says in regard to the method 
adopted by the association, since so few 
of the members had reported on the 
samples sent out the previous year, that 
he "felt, therefore, some hesitancy in 
recommending changes on adopted 
methods, even when the necessiity cf 
such changes was convincing to his own 
mind." 

Here are a few of the results of the 
most important determinations, page d'j: 



hj 



i?; 



Peter (Kentucky)...] 1.10 I 
De Roode (W. Va)..| 1.10 j 

Tilson (Texas) | .81 

Ad'rinan (Texas | .88 j 

CoUingkood (A.T.)..l 1.19 | 



.14 


.0.^7 


.28 





.om 


.n 


.1^9 




99 


.M 




l.H,-) 


.21 




1 -.35 



A study of this table shows that the 
different chemists varied in their analy- 
sis of potash 47 per cent, in phosphoric 
acid 392 per cent, and in soda there is a 
difference of 513 per cent. Only two 
determinations of nitrogen were made, 
and the results were very close. 

On the same page, in another set of 
analyses by the same chemists, there is 
a difference of over 100 per cent in/ ni- 
trogen, soda and sulphuric acid. 

In bulletin No. 38, Jnited States de- 
partment of agriculture. Prof. Hilgard 
says: "In taking soil specimens for 'Ex- 
amination, the following directions 
should be carefully observed, always 
bearing in mind- that the analysis of a 
soil is a long and tedious operation which 
cannot be indefinitely repeated." 

In bulletin No. 43, United States de- 
partment of agriculture, pages -i" 
to 41, there are numerous tables sho\v- 
ing comparative results of analyses of 
the same sample of soils by different 
methods. The difference in per cent of 
average from the highest or lowest !n 
one of the tables, and it is only a sam- 
ple of them all, is as follows: InsolubK^ 
matter, 3.1 per cent; potash, 98 per cent; 
phosphoric acid, 59 per cent; nitrogen, 
10 per cent. 

I might continue all night giving such 
discrepancies, but deem it advisable ti 
leave it to the reader to pursue the in- 
vestigation for himself, so will conclude 
by quoting the comments of the offlcl.il 
reporter and other members of the asso- 
ciation on the methods used. In speak- 
ing of the methods for determinin.gmois 



l8 



ture, page 42, the report says: "The 
Hilgard method of drying in a tube at 
200 degrees C. was the worst of all. The 
method for carbon and silica was not 
found satisfactory. Dr. de lioode does 
not like the Goss method for phosphori:: 
acid in soils, and thinks small quantities 
of phosphoric acid are not completely 
precipitated." * * * "In the Hilgard 
method for phosphoric acid it was im- 
possible to dissolve the ignited soil by 
two days' digestion in nitric acid. 

* * * This accounts for the low results 
reported." 

On page 45 the report says: "The re- 
sults of the soil analyses show wide and 
discouraging differences between the 
findings of different chemists. The 
only determinations in which a fair 
agreement has been obtained are those 
of the total insoluble matter, the am- 
monia precipitate and the nitroge'i. 

* * * These discrepancies occur even 
in those determinations in which a good 
concordance was naturally to be ex- 
pected. 

•'An inspection of the table of averag3s 
will show that the range of variation, 
while much too great in both methods, 
is distinctly greater in the Hilgard than 
in the provisional method, notwith- 
standing the fact that we are considering- 
more reports by the latter method thia 
by the former. Lack of familiarity with 
the Hilgard method can hardly be the 
cause of this, as some of the largest va- 
riations are found in the reports of thoso 
who should be most familiar with the 
method." 

On page 50 the report says: "The 
very startling variations and the 
amounts of phosphoric acid reported by 
different chemists are in the nature of a 
surprise. It is hardly to be supposed 
that they are due to differences in the 
digestion, as it is to be supposed that 
the soil solutions obtained by different 
observers were fairly uniform in their 
content of phosphoric acid; the discrep- 
ancies must be due to defects in th'e 
method of determination. * * • At- 
tention is here called to the urgent need 
of working out methods for determining 
the availability of plant food in the soil. 

"The methods for what may be called 
the total resources of a soil need per- 
fecting, but we need, also, methods by 
which results corresponding to the known 
results of field experiments may be ob- 
tained. • ♦ • 

"It is very evident to all who have 
done work in soil analysis that our pres- 
ent methods, and especially the older 
ones, consume entirely too much time 
for practical purposes, and unle.ss they 
can be very materially shortened, soil 
analysis must remain of minor import- 
ance." 

It was my Intention to quote many 
other such statements from the agri- 
cultural reports, but the limited time 
and space at my disposal hurry me .■".n 
to Prof. Wiley's comments on the same 



subject. He says, on page 65 of his 
Principles and Practice of Agricultural 
Analysis: "The physical and chemical 
analyses of soils are long and tedious 
processes, and are entirely too costly 
to be applied to samples which repre- 
sent nothing but themselves." 

Here is evidence sufficient to con- 
vince any candid mind that soil analy- 
sis is still in the first stages of develop- 
ment, and lacks all the qualifications 
necessary to make it a reliable criterion 
in determining the proper treatment to 
get the best results from any crop. The 
pioneers in this work are yet gropin^: 
in the dark, and I have not been Informed 
from the report of the association for 
1895 that the dawn is approaching. 



HIL- 



SOME MISTAKES OF PROF. 
GARD. 

At the Riverside Farmers' institute 
Prof. Hilgard made a grave mistake for 
a scientific man, when he represented 
from the analysis of the oranges there 
displayed that No. 1 was grown upon 
land with no fertilizer, and No. 2 grown 
with potash, when, in fact, No. 1 sample 
was grown with nitrates and' phosphat'-s 
and No. 2 sample was grown with ni- 
trates, phosphates and potash. 

He also made a mistake when he wrote 
his letter of April 25, 1S95, to Mr. Palmer, 
in which he said: "Three days ago 
there was delivered at my house, with 
the inscription 'House' on the outside, a 
box of oranges," etc. These oranges were 
not shipped from Pomona until the af- 
ternoon of the 22d, consequently could 
rot have left Los Angeles until the S 
p. m. train, and could not have arrived 
at Berkeley until the 24th. When Prof. 
Hilgard undertook to criticise the analy- 
sis cf a similar box of oranges by say- 
ing that the total sugars more than 
equaled the total solids In the juice, he 
made a great mistake, forming an opin- 
ion before he had all his facts. 

By a parity of reasoning, it .is only 
reasonable to suppose that he got the 
second lot of oranges mixed, as he shows 
that wherever fertilizers were applied 
positive damage was done to the fruit 
by such application. If his house servant 
had gotten 'the first samples "in- 
explicably mixed up." might not he, un- 
der the showing by his analysis, his offico 
clerk or laboratory cat have gotten th'' 
second lot mixed? 

Certainly, no one who has given the 
matter of feeding crops any attention 
would believe for one moment that com- 
plete fertilizers, in reasonable quanti- 
ties, could possibly damage the orange. 
When Prof. Hilgard thinks he is entitled 
to an opinion independently of all oth-^-r 
agricultural chemists In the world in 
regard to the matter of finding out the 
needs of a crop, and when his opinions 
are not backed up by field experiments 
or any other scientific tests, or. If they 
are, he neglects or refuses to print hip 
results and give them to the public, is 



19 



it not reasonable to think that he is mis- 
taken in this? 

Bulletin No. 36 of the Oregon station, 
published April, 1895, has this to say: "in 
the first place, let it be remembered that 
the value of a mere chemical analysis 
of a soil is at most doubtful. An analysis 
of a soil reveals what and how much of 
a given ingredient is present in the so;', 
but it does not show how much of the 
plant food is available. There is, how- 
ever, more or less value attached to so- 
called virgin soils, and an accumulated 
number of analyses of this class of soils 
gives very valuable data upon which to 
base a judgment of probable success or 
failure." 

"In all cases chemical analysis should 
be followed by careful field tests, and in 
this way any one may become familiar 
with the individual needs of his soiil."' 

The professor always puts a great deal 
of stress upon the fact that he is the 
only and original investigator of virgin 
and arid soils, with thirty-five years' ex- 
perience. The explanation of this soli- 
trary and unique position of our direct- 
or is that he is probably the only man 
who would desire to waste the public 
funds and his own time in such almost 
worthless pursuit. 



PROF. HILGARD AS DR. JEKYI.T^ 
AND MR. HYDE. 

Prof. Hilgard has told the people uf 
California again and again that he 
could advise them as to the needs of 
their crops in the matter of fertilization 
from an analysis of their soils. A 
special sponsor of Prof. Hilgard from 
Bei'keley, Mr. Victor H. Henderson, in 
a letter to the Times of last Sunday, 
has, in praising up the college of agri- 
culture and defending Prof. Hilgard, 
this to say: "Any farmer who finds 
that his crops will not grow well and 
wants to know what the soils needs to 
make it fertile, can send samples of it 
to the University of California, agricul- 
tural department. It will be analyzed, 
and he will be told just what to do to 
correct the deficiencies in its chemical 
composition." 

We find an advertisement in one ?,l 
our country exchanges of a late stu- 
dent of Prof. Hilgard, recently from 
Berkeley, which reads: "If you are In 
doubt as to what kind of fertilizers to 
use, or how much to apply, it will pay 
you to have your soil analyzed." 

Prof. Hilgard said before the last 
farmers' institute: "We cannot carry 
on culture experimentation at the sta- 
tions on virgin soils." These stations 
are. however, several years old. 

Thus doth Prof. Hilgard preach and 
teach at home before audiences not 
Dosted on these matters and upon whom 
he wishes to make the impression that 
he Is the great, "first and only investi- 
gator of virgin and arid soils." 

But how he changes his character 
when he goes abroad and talks to an au- 



dience capable of weighing what he 
says. 

At the meeting of the American Asso- 
ciation of Agricultural Colleges and 
Experiment Stations, held at Denver. 
August, 1895, in summing up his paper 
on Late Progress in Soil Examination, 
he said: 

"I think, therefore, that I am justified 
in indulging the hope that we are on 
the trail of a method for the definite as- 
certainment of the condition of a so'l 
as to available (non^nitric) nitrogen, 
which, with the method of Dyer for the 
corresponding- determinations with re- 
spect to potash and phosphoric acii, 
when all are perfected, would effectu- 
ally solve the problem of the manure 
requirements of cultivated soils that 
has so long resisted the efforts of chem- 
ists. * * * jn all cases the pot or field 
test will have the last word." 

These expression are hidden away 
amid 500 pages of his last voluminou.? 
verbiage pile. 

Could a man wade deeper in the field 
of doubt? "I think, therefore, I am jus- 
tified in indulging in the hope that Ave are 
on the trail * * * of a method which 
when all are perfected," etc. Why, a man 
could not get to heaven by the broad 
gate of the Salvation army who had not 
more "faith" than Prof. Hilgard ox- 
pressed when he produced the above par- 
agraph. 

By the way, what is Prof. Hilgard'? 
definition of a virgin soil? 

Generally virginity is supposed to have 
ceased before the subject becomes pro- 
lific, but Prof. E. W. Hilgard seems to 
consider a soil "virgin" until such time 
as it has ceased to be prolific. 



A MALICIOUS ATTACK. 



The State Agricultural Department Is 
Scored. 



The people who see and appreciate the 
work of the University of California ag- 
gricultural department is doing were sur- 
prised and disgusted' by a half-column 
editorial which appeared last Sunday 
in The Los Angeles Herald. The article 
in question accused the staff of the ag- 
gricultural department of being Ineffi- 
cient and petty politicians, and charac- 
terized the agricultural college as a 
wasite of the hard earned-money^ of the 
taxpayers of California. 

An explanation of the attack is sim- 
ple. A Los Angeles man named Wood- 
bridge, the inventor of a fertilizer, asked 
Prof. Hilgard' for a recommendation of 
his invention. Prof. Hilgard examined 
the fertilizer and refused to recommend 
it. Ever since Mr. Woodbridge has lost 
no opportunity to injure the agricultural 
department. One Abbot Kinney, anoth- 
er Los Angeles man, was formerly a state 
forestry commisisoner. When the com- 
mlsison was abolished, because of its 
inefficiency and corruptness, its d-uties 



20 



were given to the University of Califor- 
nia agricultural department. 'inis 
arousea Mr. Kinney'a wram. He i6 
part owner of The Herald, and he and 
VVood'bridge have inspired this policy of 
attacking the U. C. agricuiturai uc- 
partmeni on every possible opportun- 
ity. 

Such attacks merely disgust those 
people who really know something 
about the institution, but it is calculat- 
ed to harm the university's interests by 
leading people who have not come in 
contact with its work to form false im- 
pressions. It is unfortunate that per- 
sonal spite should go to such extremes. 
— Berkeleyan. 

The answers of the people who ar^ 
trying to discredit the charges of .u- 
competenicy against Prof. Hilgard and 
the inefficiency of his agricultural col- 
lege are of two kinds, i^'irst, laudation 
of the professor and the college, and, sec- 
ond, abuse of those who are eng-aged in 
showing up the comparative worthless- 
ness of the pruiessor and his college. 
Prof. Hilgard has many times tried to 
make it a personal fight, but the editor ■.'f 
The Herald does not intend to be caugnt 
in any such battle, however much Hil- 
gard may desire it. Our criticisms have 
been entirely upon the incompetency 
of the director of our agricultural col- 
lege and some members of his staff. 

The above article is published for the 
purpose of showing the second kind of 
"defense" Prof. Hilgard is setting up, 
either directly or indirectly. 

The "explanation" is pure fabrication, 
and the writer of this article is "the 
man named Woodbridge," and he mak'.^s 
this statement because the above fab- 
rication must have come either directly 
from the editor of tiie Berkeleyan uv 
Prof. Hilgard, for who could know that 
Woodbridge had ever asked Prof. Hil- 
gard for a recommendation for a fer- 
tilizer but Prof. Hilgard himself? This 
"man Woodbridge" denies that he ever 
invented a fertilizer or that he ever 
asked Prof. Hilgard to recommend his 
(Woodbridge's) alleged invention or 
any other fertilizer of w'hich he is the 
manufacturer, and calls upon the editor 
of the Berkeleyan to retract the 
charge or produce the proof of his as- 
sertion. 

Indeed, there was no reason why the 
"man Woodbridge" should have asked 
Prof. Hilgard to recommend his brand 
'-f fertilizer, for the professor had been 
doing it unsolicited, as the following let- 
ter will show. The letter has been in our 
possession since the time Messrs. Col- 
lins Bros, received it: 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNI.A 
COLLEGE OP agriculture" 

BERKELEY, Jan. 8, 1895.— Messrs. Col- 
lins Bros., San Dimas, Cal. — Dear Sirs: 
The samples of soil accompanying yours 
of December 27th have been received and 
examined, so far as can be done at short 
notice; a full examination would take 



more time than you would wish to wait. 
The examination reveals no prominent 
deficiency in your No. 1, of which No. 2 
is evidently only a modification. Yet 
there seems to be a deficiency in vege- 
table mold, notwithstanding the color of 
the soil is rather dark. It is a pity th.it 
stable or sheep corral manure is not 
available to you, as I think that would 
be the best thing for so sandy a soil. 

It may be that a more complete exam- 
ination of the soil, which we will make 
hereafter, will give a more decided In- 
dication; for the present, I think you 
had best use a "complete" fertilizer, 
like "Woodbridge's No. 2" orange fer- 
tilizer, together with some gypsum, 
which will help the land every way. 
Plowing in a green crop, say of crimson 
or burr clover, would be the next best 
thing, but should have been started be- 
fore this time in your climate. Better 
look out for that another year. 

The samples sent are not large enough 
for a full examination; a quart is as lit- 
tle as we ought to have. Your No. 1 
only will need to be examined; take that 
to the depth of twelve inches, and teil 
me about the depth of the soil and sub- 
soil to gravel or hard pan, or whatever 
lies underneath. Yours very truly, 
E. W. HILGARD. 

Many, no doubt, who read this letter 
and have followed out our criticisms 
will think that "the man Woodbridge" 
is a fool to criticise Prof. Hilgard when 
he was recommending his (Wood- 
bridge's) fertilizer; but between th-^ 
making the little money that we might 
have made by keeping in with Prof. 
Hilgard on one side, and exposing the 
utter incompetency of the management 
of our agricultural college, there i-^ 
but one path to follow, and that is th- 
path of duty— to fight the wrong as w<^ 
.•-^ee it. 



HOW WORK GOES AT "COW COLLEGE" 



A Stimulus Toward Good Sense in Agri- 
culture—How People Ask Questions. 
Wine-making— Olive Culture. 

BERKELEY, Oct. 15.— (Special corre- 
spondence of the Times.)— To understand 
the work that is going on here, one has 
to remember that the University of Cali- 
fornia is a real university; that is, a 
number of individual colleges, all in- 
timately bound together and under the 
same general direction, but each with 
its own faculty and its own particular 
aims. 

One of the very oldest of all the de- 
partments is the college of agriculture 
and its work, quietly and unostenta- 
tiously accomplished, is scarcely appre- 
ciated, so little is it known by most peo- 
ple. 

"Cow college," as the students Irrev- 
erently call It, has for the center of i^s 
activities a wooden building near th"^ 



21 



suuthern edge of the university grounds, 
on the banks of strawberry creek. Here 
are the ofltioes of the director and th.j 
various professors, the reading room, 
the class rooms, etc. 

But this wooden building is only a 
part of the equipment of the agricultur- 
al department. Its work is carried on 
from one end of the state to the other 
by means of the experiment station-;, 
outposts, where investigations are car- 
ried on as to problems of soil, fertiliz- 
ers, plant life, olive culture, forestry, 
wine-making, etc. 

People often think of the agricultural 
department as being an outgrowth of 
the other side of the university— the cul- 
ture colleges. But it is just the other 
way around. The first state institution 
was a college of agriculture and me- 
chanics, and the other departments 
budded out from that. This Califor- 
nia agricultural college was the first 
one in the United States, and it stands 
today at the head of all others in Amer- 
ica. 

Now, I want to tell you something 
about Prof. E. W. Hilgard, the man who 
has made the agricultural department, 
and is its life and soul. He is small, 
slight and wiry. His hair is gray, an! 
his keen eyes look at one through spec- 
tacles. He is a German by birth, and 
though most of his life has been passed 
in America, he still talks with a German 
accent. In his own line, agricultural 
chemistry, he has no superior. Once 
every ten years a gold medal, commem- 
urative of Liebig, the great German 
chemist, is awarded to the man held to 
be the greatest chemist living, the man 
who is doing the most valuable scientific 
work in that line. Prof. Hilgard is fne 
possessor of one of these medals. 

Some of his most famous work has 
been in the line of soil analysis, the 
study of the reclamation of alkali lands 
in especial. Not long ago a man came all 
the way from Hambui-g, Germany, to 
study the question of alkali lands under 
Prof. Hilgard's direction. Any farmar 
who finds that his crops will not grow 
well and wants to know what the soil 
needs to make it fertile, can send sam- 
ples of it to the University of California 
agricultural department. It will be an- 
alyzed and he will be told just what to Jo 
to correct deficiencies in its chemical 
composition. 

One fruit raiser, whose ranch is in Cen- 
tral California, wrote to Prof. Hilgard 
that his trees all seemed to be stunted 
and wretched. Prof. Hilgard happened 
to know that section of the country thor- 
oughly. He wrote back to dig down six 
feet and see what he could find. The 
farmer dug down two feet and struiik 
rock. The man from whom he had 
bought the place had blasted out holes 
in which to plant his trees. That was a 
case where advice as to fertilizers 
couldn't save the trees. Some farmers 
are absurdedly unreasonable. They will 



write for information as to what kiad 
of fertilizer to use, sending no samples 
of soil and no description thereof, and 
then grow angry and call the agricul- 
tural scientists ninnies because they 
can't tell offhand, like a medium. 

The number of regularly enrolled 
students in "Cow college" is not large. 
But there are a, great many people tak- 
ing particular lines of work there, men 
who enroll in the colleges of chemistry, 
or of natui-al sciences, but spend most 
of their time in agricultural studies. 
There are courses in agricultural chem • 
stry, in sugar beets and sugar manu- 
facture, in viticulture, in wine-making, 
in economic entomology and other allied 
topics, and anybody who wants some 
special line of work will be gladly ad- 
vised and helped. 

But. after all, the sole object is not 
,0 instruct students. Perhaps the most 
important phase of the work is the orig- 
inal investigation that goes on. 

In all the other departments of the 
university the professors have summer 
vacations. In the agricultural college 
they never have more than two weeks, 
and this year they have had no vacation 
whatever, but worked right straight 
along all summer. 

Their object is to furnish information 
on every topic any farmer wants to be 
advised about. If the subject Is obscure 
and the questions have never been 
solved, they go ahead and work them 
out. Bulletins are printed from time to 
time on the work accomplished, and 
these are sent to whoever wishes them. 

During the last year Prof. Hilgard 
has answered some 1200 letters of in- 
quiry. These letters were not answered 
by printed matter, but by individual, 
specially written replies. The agricul- 
tural department, as a whole, wrote be- 
tween 5000 and 6000 of these letters of 
information. 

The farmers send for all sorts of in- 
formation. They ask how to pickle olives, 
how to destroy army worms, how lo 
dry figs, how to reclaim, alkali lands, 
how to grow oranges on cactus plants, 
and a thousand different things. Every 
question is answered as fully and as 
promptly as possible. Besides the.se 
letters, a great deal of printed matter 
is being constantly sent out. 

Berkeley is the only place in the 
United States where there are facilities 
for studying wine-making scientifically. 
When the old viticultural commission 
was abolished, the valuable library and 
apparatus it had accumulated were 
turned over to the University of Cali- 
fornia, and its duties added to the work 
already carried on by the department. 
A great deal of very valuable work has 
been done since. Mr. Hayne of the de- 
partment has recently devised a wino- 
cooling apparatus for use during fer- 
mentation, which, it is believed, will save 
tens of thousands of dollars to the 
farmers of California every year by 



22 



lessening the chancea of wine spoiling in 
the maicing. At present the vitlcultura! 
staff is experimenting on the use of 
yeasts in wine-making, another thinu; 
which promises to be of great importance 
to wine-makers. 

Down in the western part of the uni- 
versity grounds is an interesting insti- 
tution, the first experiment station 
founded in the United States. When 
Prof. Hilgard came to California twenty 
years ago, he induced the regents of the 
university to start an experiment station 
on the German plan. It was a valuable 
idea, and Senator Hatch was so im- 
pressed with the practical results that 
he introduced the bill which provided 
for the establishment of stations in 
other parts of the country, the well- 
known Hatch act. Since then other sta- 
tions have been founded elsewhere m 
California, at Paso Robles, at Tulare, 
near Chino, etc., all directed by Prof. 
Hilgard, and all used as places for car- 
rying on the work of the department. 
Here new varieties of fruits, vegetables 
and economic plants are domesticate'.!, 
experiments in pruning, fertilizing, ir- 
rigation, etc., carried on, determinations 
made of the kinds of crops suited for 
particular soils, etc. The aim is not to 
raise anything in quantity, but merely 
enough for experimental purposes. The 
results of these investigations form pait 
of the agricultural bulletins. 

There are also two forestry station.^-, 
one at Chino and one at Santa Monica. 
They are tlie only ones in the United 
States. 

An interesting part of the work of the 
college of agriculture is the farmer^' 
institute movement. The farmers of a 
section of country meet together and 
listen to addresses on agricultural topics 
by professors sent from Berkeley, and 
then discuss their own experiences and 
observations. A great deal of useful 
Knowledge is thus disseminated. Tlie 
farmers' institutes have sometimes re- 
sulted in the formation of permanent 
farmers' clubs. 

It seems to me this is a good oppoi'- 
tunity to correct a widespread misappre- 
liension. Some of those people who are 
opposed to the University of California 
agricultural department, from various 
motives, generally of personal enmity, 
talk about the impropriety and folly of 
the taxpayers of California supporting 
the expensive and useless agricultural 
college. The truth is that only about 
one-tenth of the revenues of the agri - 
cultural department comes from thj 
state treasury. All the rest of the ex- 
penses are borne by the national gov- 
ernment. Such an institution is neces- 
sarily costly, but from the knowledu^o 
it spreads, from the stimulus it is to in- 
telligence in farming, its value is in- 
calculable. — Victor H. Henderson in the 
Times. 



REPLY. 
We wish to give the advocates of the 
agricultural college the full benefit of 
all they can allege in its behalf, ana 
therefore we print in full the letter of 
Mr. Henderson. The cause of dissatis- 
faction with the work of the college as 
they have been presented in The Herald 
are not even touched upon by Prof. Hil- 
gard, and in his attempted vindication 
before the farmers' insiitutes or in the 
rehash of the same served' up in the 
above letter. The practical question is 
what has the college done with its lar^e 
resources to help the agricultural in- 
terests of Southern California? We 
have given replies from numerous 
ranchmen and we prove superlluously 
that no help has been given and none 
can be given to our crops along the lines 
followed at the college. The claim of 
Mr. Henderson that because nine-tenths 
of the money spent at the college comes 
from the United States, and therefore 
ought not to be taken, in account in esti- 
mating the benefit which the state re- 
ceives, is too absurd to need answer. 
Indeed, this whole epistle, viewed as an 
answer to our strictures, only reminds 
us of the old raying, as we try to review- 
its statements of the case, that it is very 
hard to kick at nothing. 

Will Mr. Henderson point out wherein 
the college has accomplished anything 
to rid otir orchards of our infernal insect 
pests? Will he point out a single crop 
which Prof. Hilgard can show that hi 
has improved in quality or quantity, 
were and how and to what extent thi.s 
has been accomplished? 

If Mr. Hendersion would, instead of 
taking his inspiration from the men at 
Berkeley, get out among the ranchers 
and make some inquiries, he might 
learn the true state of affairs. 

If he had been present on Wednesday 
at a controversy held with Mr. E. C. 
Bichowsky of San Gabriel, Mr. Hender- 
son would have learned something. 

Question: What good has the agricul- 
tural college been to you as a wine 
maker? 

Answer: If you will ask me what 
damage it has done I can readily answer 
you. 
Question: What damage has it done? 
Answer: Prof. Hilgard was the di- 
rect cause of the spread .of phylloxera 
by planting, for experimental purposes, 
infected vines. 

Mr. Bichowsky is the manager of the 
great winery and property known as 
•Sunny Slope." He was, also, president 
of the viticultural commission. 

Mr. Winston of San Gabriel was seen 
and interviewed. 

Question: How long have you been 
in the orange business? 
Answer: Twenty-seven years. 
Question: Has the agricultural col- 
lege ever been of any benefit in showing 
you how to grow oranges or improving 
the quality or quantity of them? 



Answer: No, sir. 

But why pursue the matter further? 
It is very evident that Mr. Henderson 
is not a rancher and entirely misainder- 
stands the exceptions that are talvcn 
to the management and methods of the 
agricultural college. 

THE BERKELEYAN'S ATTACK. 

Such untruthful, cowardly statements 
as appear in the clipping from the Berke- 
leyan, published below, in answer lo 
the charges of incompetency that have 
appeared in The Herald against Prof. 
Hilgard and some members of his staff 
are characteristic of the man, but wholly 
unworthy to emanate from a university 
that should be a teacher of morals as 
well as of science, but the agi'icultural 
department seems to be woefully de- 
ficient in both: 

"An explanation of the attack is sim- 
ple. A Los Angeles man named WooJ- 
bridge, the inventor of a fertilizer, 
asked Prof. Hilgard for a recommenda- 
tion, of his invention. Prof. Hilgard ex- 
amined the fertilizer and refused to rec- 
ommend it. Ever since Mr. Woodbridge 
has lost no opportunity to injure the 
agricultural department. One Abbot 
Kinney, another Los Angeles man, wjs 
formerly a state foresti-y commissioner. 
When the commisison was abolished 
because of its inefficiency and corrupt- 
ness, its duties were given to the Uni- 
versity of California agricultural depai t- 
ment. This aroused Mr. Kinney's wrath. 
He is part owner of The Herald, and he 
and Woodbridge have inspired this pol- 
icy of attacking the University of Cali- 
fornia agricultural department on every 
possible occasion." — Berkeley an. 

It will be observed that "Prof. Hilgard 
examined the fertilizer and refused' to 
recommend it." Having prevoiusly de- 
nied in toto "the explanation," we call at- 
tention to the cowardly way in which 
the matter is put. The writer of tlie ar- 
ticle did not dare to say that the fertil- 
izer was "found wanting," and that 
therefore Hilgard refused to recom- 
mend it, but leaves the reader "to infer" 
that such was the case. 

Likewise in regard' to the statement as 
to forestry, the article leads people "to 
infer" that Mr. Kinney was a member of 
the forestry commisison when it was 
abolished. 

The facts in the case are as follows: 

Mr. Kinney was a member of the for- 
estry commission until 1888, w'hen his 
term expired. During his three years' 
connection with the commission he estab- 
lished five stations andtW'O others prom- 
ised, among them the Santa Monioa 
station, on which he planted the inter- 
estinig trees that are now sought to be 
studied there. When Mr. Kinney re- 
tired from the commission he turned 
over to his successors over $100,000 worth 
of property. The commission then went 
into the hands of politicians and little 
was done in the interest of forestry. 



This political commission was not abol- 
ished until 1893, when its property, in- 
cluding the five forestry stations, was 
turned over to Hilgard as head of the 
agricultural department. There seem 
to be only two stations left. What has 
Hilgard done with the other three sta- 
tions? 

If these facts were not known to the 
editors of the Berkeleyan, they certain- 
ly were to Prof. Hilgard or his press 
fixer, who furnished the statements to 
the editors of the Berkeleyan. 

We understand that the Berekeleyan is 
published and edited by the students of 
the University of California. If such 
is the case ,the regents ought to take 
this matter up and investigate it, and 
discharge from their employment the 
person or persons who have been giv- 
ing these young editors their first lesson 
(we hope it is the first) in misrepresenta- 
tion. 



PROF. HILGARD BEHIND THE AGE 

Some time ago we gave an account of 
the experiment station at Southern 
Pines, North Carolina, which is proba- 
bly one of the largest experimental sta- 
tions, if not the largest station, in the 
the United States. The grounds of this 
station cover some thousands of acres, 
and are under the management of the 
state board of horticulture, the state 
agricultural experiment station and the 
German kali works. 

In a little work published by the lat- 
ter concern called Principles of Profita- 
ble Farming, some account of the sta- 
tion is given, a part of which we repro- 
duce and place in the deadly parallel 
column with what Prof. E. W. Hilgard 
said before the last farmers' institutea 
held in Southern California. 

"The soil when the! "We cannot carry 
experimental farmion fertilizer experi- 
Was established wasj mentation at the sta- 
in a virgin condition, tions on virgin soils." 
This was one great|— E. W. Hilgard's lec- 
ad'vantiage. for the'ture before Farmers' 
effect of fertilizers to| Institutes, Septem- 
be usedin the experi-lber, 1896. 
ments will not be in-i 
flueneed by the] 
growth of previousi 
crops or by elements! 
of plant food suppli-! 
ed by previous ma-l 
nuring." ! 

If Prof. Hilgard had been doing the 
kind of experimental work that is being 
done at other agricultural experiment 
stations, instead of fooling away his own 
time and wasting the public funds in 
worthless soil analyses, no two of which 
agree, he might have shown the people 
of the state how to grow crops of larger 
quantities and better quality. And 
when he was asked how to grow sweeter 
oranges with thinner skins, he could 
have given some definite information in- 
stead of saying, "Don't ask conun- 
drums." Prof. Hilgard has lost his op- 
portunity and he should be retired. 



24 



THE HERALD AND THE AGRICUL- 
TURAL. COLLEGE 

The strictures which The Herald has 
felt called upon to make upon the meth- 
ods and plans of the college are spe- 
cific and radical. At the risk of "iter- 
ation," which Shakespeare qualifies so 
violently, we wish to present once more 
our contention In the simplest form. 
Such a statement will, we think, make 
clear that the issue is in no sense per- 
sonal, but has to do witli the vast inter- 
ests of Southern California as a fruit 
and grain growing region. If the fail- 
ure of the college to aid our ranchmen 
calls for a change in the administration 
of the college. The Herald is respon- 
sible only for its promises and not for 
the conclusion which those premises 
demand. Gold medals from beyond the 
sea may adorn the wise men at Berkeley, 
but our farmers need practical help in 
their crops and in the war they have to 
wage with the enemies that Infest their 
fields and orchards, and such needed 
help has not come from director or as- 
sistants. Thousands upon thousands 
of dollars have been annually given to 
the college without any practical ben- 
efit. The Ontario Observer has hit the 
nail squarely on the head when it says: 

"The Herald's criticisms have been 
entirely upon the incompetency of the 



director of the agricultural college and 
some members of his staff. A perusal of 
the evidence collected by The Herald 
regarding the small benefit derived by 
the farmers of the state from the theo- 
retical researches of the college staff 
leads one to suppose that a much better 
use might be made of the funds appro- 
priated for agricultural college work if 
The Herald's suggestion of the estab- 
lishment of numerous inexpensive ex- 
periment stations could be carried out. 
As already suggested in the Observer, 
plots of ground in the vicinity of such 
schools as Chaffey might be worked 
under the direction of teachers compe- 
tent to investigate under the direction 
of a practical state superintendent ques- 
tions vital to the Interests of the farm- 
ers and fruit growers of the vicinity of 
each experimental plot." 

We are receiving like testimony from 
various quarters, and we deem it a duty 
we owe the public to call upon those who 
control the appointment of the officials 
of the college to put practical men on 
duty. An agricultural college is a sham 
unless it sends forth irrigating streams 
of useful knowledge to enrich 
the state through its mani- 
fold harvests. The Herald proposes to 
continue to advocate practice vs. theory. 
The question hinges just at this point. 



25 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

A Malicious Attack , 20 

A Specimen in Entomology 4 

A Wonderful Discovery 5 

Corn Worm 4 

Farmers' Institutes 11 

How Work Goes at "Cow College" 21 

Interviews 15 

Mr. Hayne's Incompetence 9 

Our Professional Entymologist and Wasps 10 

Our Agricultural College 3 

Preposterous Pretentions Exposed 6 

Prof. Hilgard as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 20 

Prof. Hilgard Behind the Age 24 

Report of Agricultural Experiment Stations 3 

Some Mistakes of Prof. Hilgard 19 

Some Scientific Farmings of Prof. Hilgard 14 

The Berkleyan's Attack 24 

The Herald and the Agricultural College 25 

The Status of Soil Analysis 18 

To Excuse is to Accuse 12 

Too Much Learning has made him Mad 16 



ERRATA. 

This Bulletin was printed in the absence of the editor and the reader is 
requested to correct any typographical errors. 

Entyniologist should read entomologist. 

Page 17, last line of first column, should read "as" instead of "on." 

Page 23, 2nd column, 4th paragraph, for "controversy" read "conver- 
sation." 



Mil 



■^^■i<! 



